COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT REPORT

On
“A comprehensive study on Role of Digital and Social Media
marketing on Consumer Behaviour”

Submitted to

L J Institute of Management Studies (729)

Under the Guidance of

Dr. Anitha Sunil
In partial Fulfilment of the Requirement of the award of
the degree of
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Offered By
Gujarat Technological University
Ahmedabad
Prepared by:
Aneri Shah (187290592142)
TSP Srikar (187290592166)
MBA(Semester-4)
February 2020

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 Student’s Declaration

We hereby declare that the COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT REPORT titled as “A

comprehensive study on Role of Digital and Social Media marketing on Consumer
Behaviour” in AHMEDABAD is a result of our work and our indebtedness to other work
publications, references, if any, have been duly acknowledged. If we are found guilty of
copying from any other report or published information and showing as our original
work, or extending plagiarism limit, we understand that we shall be liable and punishable
by the university, which may include being declared ‘Fail’ in the CP examination or any
other punishment which the university may decide.

ENROLLEMENT NAME SIGNATURE

NUMBER
187290592142 Aneri Shah
187290592166 TSP Srikar

Place: Date:

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 Institute Certificate

“This is to certify that this COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT Titled “A comprehensive

study on Role of Digital and social media marketing on Consumer Behaviour”
is the bonafide work of Shah Aneri Bhaskerbhai (187290592142), TSP Srikar
(187290592166), who have carried out their project under my supervision. I
also certify further, that to the best of my knowledge the work reported herein
does not form part of any other project report or dissertation on the basis of
which a degree or award was conferred on an earlier occasion on this or any
other candidate. I have also checked the plagiarism extent of this report which is
__ and it is below the prescribed limit of 30%. The separate plagiarism report in
the form of html/pdf file is enclosed with this.

Rating of Project Report: ______

Signature of the Faculty Guide:

(Dr. Anitha Sunil)

Professor

Signature of Principal / Director with Stamp of Institute

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Dr. Siddarth Singh Bist

Certificate of Examiner
This is to clarify that project work embodied in this report entitled “A comprehensive study
on Digital and Social media marketing on Consumer Behaviour.” was carried out by Shah
Aneri Bhaskerbhai (187290592142) of L J Institute of Management Studies( Institute
code:729) .
The report is approved / not approved.
Comments of External Examiner:
This report us for the partial fulfillment of the requirement of the award of the degree of

Master of Business Administration (full-time) offered by Gujarat Technological

University.

( Examiner’s Sign)
External Examiner’s Institute Name:

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External Examiner’s Institute Code:
Date:
Place:

Certificate of Examiner
This is to clarify that project work embodied in this report entitled “A comprehensive study
on Digital and social media marketing on Consumer Behaviour.” was carried out by TSP
Srikar (187290592166) of L J Institute of Management Studies( Institute code:729) .
The report is approved / not approved.
Comments of External Examiner:
This report us for the partial fulfillment of the requirement of the award of the degree of

Master of Business Administration (full-time) offered by Gujarat Technological

University.

( Examiner’s Sign)
External Examiner’s Institute Name:
External Examiner’s Institute Code:

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Date:
Place:

Plagiarism Report

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 Preface

As a part of MBA curriculum and in order to gain practical knowledge in the field of
management, we are required to make a report on “A comprehensive study on Digital and
social media marketing on Consumer Behaviour”

The basic objective behind doing this project report is to get knowledge of different tools of
marketing.

Doing this project report helped us to enhance our knowledge regarding the shopping
preferences of people of Ahmedabad that which major factors affects them most while
making any shopping decision.

Through this report, we come to know about importance of team work and role of devotion
towards the work.

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 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, we are sincerely thankful to Gujarat technological university and
L.J. institute of management studies. In bringing out this report, we indebted to so many
people for help of various kinds. We would like to thanks few of them.

I would also like to thank our director Dr. P.K Mehta and our dean Dr. Siddarth Singh Bist
and our faculty mentor Prof. Dr. Anitha Sunil faculty guide without her guidance and co-
operation, this project would not have been successfully accomplished.

We also express our gratitude to all those people, who have provided me all the necessary
information throughout the infrastructure to carry out the project, and people who were
directly and indirectly instrumental in enabling us to stay committed for the project.

We would last but not the least also likes to thank our parent who equally supported us and
motivated us for opting such a crucial field for our bright future.

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 Table of Contents
Sr. No. Content Page No.

1 Preface

2 Acknowledgement

3 Table of contents

4 Introduction

5 Literature Review

6 Objective of the study

7 Scope of the Study

8 Problem Identification & Hypothesis Formulation

9 Research Methodology

10 Data Analysis & Interpretation

11 Findings

12 Conclusion

13 Suggestions

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 14 References

15 Bibliography

16 Annexure

Executive Summary

The purpose of this project titled “A comprehensive study on Digital and social media
marketing on Consumer Behaviour” is to collect the necessary information about the people
of Ahmedabad regarding shopping habits.

The consumers of internet in the present times are widely spread in all over the world and
have taken a growth in many of the sectors. Digital media Marketing and Social Media
Marketing, have provided new way of communication to engage the consumer in different
business sectors. Various Online tools are also increasing on rapid rate to reach new
customers. According to recent marketing research, social media is getting involved in
people’s lives and making them more dependent. Social media improve the interaction by
providing contents publicly and gain interest of visitors. Social sites are tools to spread the
information among consumers.

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 Introduction

Using the internet, social media, mobile apps, and other digital communication technologies
has become part of billions of people’s daily lives. For instance, the current number of
internet users in India is about 323 Million and around 3.2 Billion on this planet. Younger
people—the next generation of mass consumers—have similarly high levels. People also
spend increasing time online.
For example, in the India, over the last decade the number of hours spent online by people
has more than doubled, and now averages 20.5 hours per week. Social media has fuelled part

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of this growth: worldwide there are now more than 2.46 billion people using social media,
and Facebook alone now has approximately 1 billion active users per day. Clearly, people are
exposing themselves to more and more digital and social media.

This is for many purposes, including in their roles as consumers as they search for
information about products, purchase and consume them, and communicate with others about
their experiences. Marketers have responded to this fundamental shift by increasing their use
of digital marketing channels. In fact, by 2017 approximately one-third of global advertising
spending is forecast to be in digital channels.
Thus, future consumer marketing will largely be carried out in digital settings, particularly
social media and mobile. It is therefore necessary for consumer research to examine and
understand consumer behaviour in digital environments. This has been happening over the
last decade, with increasing amounts of research focusing on digital consumer
behaviour issues.

This has been happening over the last decade, with increasing amounts of research focusing
on digital consumer behaviour issues. The literature is still relatively nascent, however, and
more research is of course needed— particularly given the ever-changing nature of the
digital/social media/mobile environments in which consumers are situated and interact with
brands and each other.

Clearly, people are exposing themselves to more and more digital and social media. This
is for many purposes, including in their roles as consumers as they search for information
about products,1 purchase and consume them, and communicate with others about their
experiences. Marketers have responded to this fundamental shift by increasing their use of
digital marketing channels. In fact, by 2017 approximately one-third of global advertising
spending is forecast to be in digital channels. Thus, future consumer marketing will largely
be carried out in digital settings, particularly social media and mobile. It is therefore
necessary for consumer research to examine and understand consumer behaviour in digital
environments.

Consumer Digital Culture

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Consumer digital culture research considers, quite deeply, the digital environments in which
consumers are situated. A key aspect of this work has been understanding how 5 consumers’
identities and self-concepts extend into digital worlds, such as work by Belk. Belk extended
his prior work on the “extended self” to incorporate the digital environments in which
consumers now situate themselves, which is an important piece of theory development
because it considers concepts such as the ability for consumers to have multiple selves due to
possessing multiple online “personas.” Belk also suggests many areas for future research.
Other research under this theme looked at more specific phenomena. McQuarrie et al.
focused on fashion blogging as a means of documenting the “megaphone effect,” which is the
ability for regular consumers to access large audiences through digital/social media. This is
an important effect and they discussed how bloggers go about building audiences and
accumulating social (or cultural) capital through demonstrations of “good taste.” In a social
media setting this essentially means that a blogger (or “influencer”) makes recommendations
that signal her expertise to others. This is in a specific setting, but has implications for
understanding consumers’ content-generation behaviours on social media more generally,
since signalling positive personal attributes is likely a common motivation for posting certain
things on sites like Facebook. Together, these articles make an important conceptual
contribution around how we see consumers in a digital world, particularly by implying an
expanded conception of what it is to be a consumer in today’s digital world.

Digital advertising is a major topic in the marketing literature and, with respect to consumer
behaviour, considers how consumers respond to various aspects of digital ads. A number of
recent articles considered behavioural aspects of digital advertising from various
perspectives. One interesting perspective taken in a few articles was based around how 6 to
overcome (assumed) psychological reactance due to personalization of digital ad targeting.

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The consumers of internet in the present times are widely spread in all over the world and
have taken a growth in many of the sectors. Digital media had provided new way of
communication to engage the consumer in different business sector. Various Online tools are
also increasing on rapid rate to reach new customers. It has been observed by many
companies who get more interactive and becomes famous on social media. This results on
their business rapid growth. It has been reported in 2010, Face book have nearly about 400
millions of users. There are 1.5 million users who belong to the business sector. The
organisation requires being well aware about the platforms from where they could approach
large number of customers and spread their information among them. Some of the companies
like- Dell, Samsung, Sony, etc. have experienced the increment of sales while using social
media (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). In last year of February, Sony announced on a social site
i.e. Twitter, that they had gain extra $1.6 million. After in June month Dell Company also
experienced the direct connection to the customer and it increases the overall growth of the 4
business. It generates a question that whether social media is best for highly reputed brand, or
it is helpful for smaller brands. In 2009, social media gave the answer by a so-called example
of a very small shoe company situated at Canada. The company’s name was John Fluevog
Boots and Shoes which analysed their sales increment by 40 percent after starting
advertisement on social media and becomes well known brand. Social media is new research
for marketing but still some research is there. Social media offers various strategies to
manage above explained phenomenon. The strategies offered by them are recommended in
nature and lack experimental in support. According to previous findings, social media had
investigated the user tempting fields. They are also trying to find facts of relevance interest
(Vinerean.et.al, 2013). Larry Weber 2009 had mentioned in his book that Social media is a
new marketing platform where judgment of public changes in every hour, minute and even
each seconds but the attitude of customer for product are not changed in this rapid rate.

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Social Media has changed the organizations do business with the help of computers online
over past few years, and as result social media marketing has created its own name in the
business world. There are many online networking sites are there which affect consumer
behavior. Like Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube etc. Now a days Social Media is using by
almost all the ages of consumers may college students, working class and even old age people
too. Millions of emerging young adults use Social web sites. Social websites like Orkut,
facebook, My Space is having many features which affect and attract many number of
people. In today the life Social Media become a very strong useful tool using by the
consumer in buying decisions. Technology has changed the life of all consumers. Today we
are living in 21stcentury, it is very difficult for the consumers to spend time on purchasing
the product because of busy schedule. Now a days users are acquiring followers and
subscribers giving information by social media how to purchase the goods online without
wasting time to go personally. Through Social Networking Sites consumers can get
information not only about companies but also for the companies too. Even social media is
helping consumers to buy product through engagement that means consumers and various
stakeholders like company, consumers, society, businessman are participants rather then
viewers. So Consumers can change their mind before purchasing any product through online.

There are various Social Media Marketing tools are available for the consumers some of them
are:
1. Social Media Monitoring.
2. Social Media.

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3. Blog Marketing.
4. Social Book Marketing and Tagging.
5. Social Analytics and Reporting.
6. Social Aggregation.

With the fickle popularity of various Social Media Marketing like Google+, Facebook,
Instagram Etc. which is affecting consumer behavior.

Process of the Digital Marketing of a Product:

 Marketing/prospecting to your target market and audience

 Building credibility and trust
 Escorting and courting the buyer through the process
 Presenting the product or service that meets their needs
 Closing the sale

Literature Review
The unique characteristics of social media marketing and digital media marketing , the
popularity that it has gained in the past few years have brought forth a revolution in the
practices pertaining to marketing. Social media has changed the way an organisation

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promotes their products or advertises for the same. Social media has also been observed to
have an impact on the behaviour of a consumer from the acquisition of data from the
behaviour post purchasing a product

The advantages that are prevalent with the social media are it helps in connecting the
business of an organisation with its intended customers. Social media also helps in the
development of the relationships and providing methods for fostering those new relationships
at a low cost and periodic manner (Schirr, 2013). Some of the other functions pertaining to
social media involve its influence and effect on the perception of an individual, their attitude
and their final behaviour at the end. The Social media websites provides the organisations an
opportunity for engaging and interacting with the current and potential consumers for the
organisation. This helps in creating an increased sense pertaining to intimacy in the
relationship that exists between the organisation and the customer (Noreen and Han, 2015).
Social media also helps an organisation in building up meaningful and important relationship
with their current as well as potential consumers in the market.

The consumers of internet in the present times are widely spread in all over the world and
have taken a growth in many of the sectors. Digital media had provided new way of
communication to engage the consumer in different business sector. Various Online tools are
also increasing on rapid rate to reach new customers. According to recent marketing research,
social media is getting involved in people’s lives and making them more dependent. The
marketing approaches are astounding with millions of customers. The whole world spends
approximately110 billion minutes on accessing social networking sites like Face book, twitter
and reading blogs (Tuten and Solomon, 2014). It has been also analysed that visitor of social
media are increased up to 24% in last year. The above factor does not put a doubt about how
business sector overlaps to people’s life by social medium. Social media improve the
interaction by providing contents publically and gain interest of visitors. Social sites are tools
to spread the information among consumers. People are sharing their personnel content or
public content inside and outside their professional life.

Stephen Andrew T. (2016)

This article reviews recently published research about consumers in digital and social
media marketing settings. Five themes are identified:
(i) consumer digital culture
(ii) responses to digital advertising,
(iii) effects of digital environments on consumer behaviour\
(iv) mobile environments
(v) online word of mouth (WOM)
Collectively these articles shed light from many different angles on how consumers
experience, influence, and are influenced by the digital environments in which they are
situated as part of their daily lives. Much is still to be understood, and existing knowledge
tends to be disproportionately focused on WOM, which is only part of the digital consumer

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experience. Several directions for future research are advanced to encourage researchers to
consider a broader range of phenomena.

The Uses of Social Media and Digital Marketing

Journal of International Business Research and Marketing
Volume 4, Issue 2, January 2019

Social media and digital marketing activities are very important, it’s not only for gaining
revenue, but also to reduce the cost of conventional marketing activities. It may be good if
currently this company’s sales number still good, but will it last? Will this brand become the
top of mind brand for the next five years without being lost or overshadowed by the
competitors? That is what social media and digital marketing useful for; we can predict the
future, do prevention of crisis, and create innovations; because by using social media and
digital marketing we can track our brand’s competitors. The usage of having these online
activities is also to know about people’s opinion about our product, build our brand
reputation, and to find the voices of our brand supporters or even the haters. These are things
that conventional marketing hardly achieved effectively.

The big marketing budget that originally for traditional marketing activities can be shifted to
activate the digital marketing strategies, because by going digital we can check how much the
frequency of the customer that get our advertisement, how their buying and lifestyle
behaviour, etc.

First of all, TVCs Advertisement, Sales Promotion and Below The Line (BTL) may be good
and useful for the past generation, the budget that will be spent on those marketing channels
will be huge, yet the effectiveness by the revenues number may hard to checked in detail
because the evaluation is not really measurable. Those channels cannot really do direct
targeting. People who watch television, come to the store or come to the event may vary; they
who watch or come may not our product’s target market, and with those conventional
channels we cannot track their database and their behaviour. With digital and social media
activities, we can track people’s behaviour and create a database for us. The advertisement
can be targeted directly to the specific age, gender, location, and even their shopping lifestyle.
Using digital, it eases us to know our consumers’ profiles. Checking our competitor will be
also easier than past marketing activities. We can check their new promotions on their
website, what content they create to engage with their customers, what is their latest product
development; all of these elements can be tracked using social media and digital tools. Also,
social media helps Marketers to reduce the marketing budget, placing advertisement on TV,
Radio or even Printed Media need a huge budget, same goes with creating brand activation
events. However, digital campaign through Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Youtube Ads, or
even placing ads on millennials-friendly sites like Webtoon, Line or IDN Times, this will be
‘low cost – high impact marketing. Also, social media helps marketer to create more direct

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interaction with the consumers, because they can give direct feedback about our product in
our social media, even now there are Instagram Polling and Youtube Polling that can help
marketer to launch survey about our product via online and targeted to our public market –
the millennial teenagers.

To advertise the product, digital channel could be used such as social media
network, Email Marketing, and affiliate marketing.

By- Dr Chitranshi Verma

Issue 4, April 2019

Various research findings have also supported and proved the fact that social media has
become a weapon of modern marketers nowadays. It has become an easy and very
convenient tool to reach out to their customers. Laeder ,James (2018) in his paper has
concluded that Social Networking sites are so designed as to make the consumers addicted to
them in such a manner that they establish the feeling of belongingness with them. This view
has also been strengthened by the studies of Gaoet.al,2017 and Yang et.al.,2016. These
studies have helped in better understanding of the determinants that how an individual
consumer’s behaviour is influenced by sense of belonging. These studies have primarily
focused on the positive aspects of these on the consumer behaviour, but it can result in
negative consequences too. In marketing, there is currently a growing interest in digital
interactivity, especially in consumer activity in social media. It has empowered consumers
and their role is shifting from being passive participants to becoming active participants.
(Stewart & Pavlou,2002). This active consumer behaviour is changing the media and
marketing platform as consumers are invading marketing sphere (Berthon et.a;.2008). With
the enormous interest in social media and user generated content i.e. UGC on sites such as
You Tube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Consumers are seen to be actively contributing to the
content.

A study of the impact of social media on consumers M. Nick Hajli Birkbeck,

University o f London

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 5 6 Issue

With the advances in the internet and the emergence of Web 2.0, the interconnectivity
between individuals has expanded on the internet. This development enables customers and
businesses to collaborate on the internet (Füller et al. 2009). This has emerged through social
media, which enable consumers to generate content and have social interactions online via
social platforms. There are a number of social platforms that have facilitated information
sharing. For instance, Wikipedia, a free online encyclopaedia, is one of the most popular
platforms and has the facility for users to collaborate on information sharing (Chen et al.
2011a). Other platforms with the ability to generate reviews and ratings, such as Amazon,

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com, enable customers to review and rate products. In addition, members of these platforms
are cooperatively interdependent (Chris et al. 2008). By using social media, consumers can
create content and offer valuable advice to others (Füller et al. 2009). This new development
has seen online communities and an electronic network of individuals emerge on social
platforms where members share information globally and quickly (Molly McLure & Samer
2005). With the rise in social networks, a new era of content creation has emerged, where
individuals can easily share experiences and information with other users (Chen et al. 2011a).
The next generation of online businesses will be based on communities - a good tool for new
customer attraction (Bagozzi & Dholakia 2002; Ridings & Gefen 2004). Online communities
offer an opportunity to organisations to have a better customer relationship management
system (Ridings & Gefen 2004), for instance, giving rise to a new development where
businesses can improve 389 A study of the impact of social media on consumers
performance. Moreover, on those platforms where consumers have social interaction,
members can become familiar with one another, providing a possible source of trust (Lu et al.
2010). This can greatly influence users’ intention to buy (Gefen 2002). Consequently, it is
important for companies to have a business model adapted to social commerce (Lorenzo et al.
2007; Liang &c Turban 2011). Social commerce is a new stream in e-commerce, which
encourages the social interaction of consumers through social media (Hajli 2013). Social
media provide opportunities for businesses to become more attractive universally (Chen et al.
2011b). Although social commerce and social media are key phenomena in e-commerce and
the marketing literature, few studies, if any, have examined the concepts of trust and users’
intentional behaviour. In the next section the literature related to the model of study maps out
the theoretical foundation of the research.

Nick Hajli

Newcastle University Business School, United Kingdom

Social commerce Social commerce is a new stream and subset of e-commerce (Hajli, 2014b;
Kim & Park, 2013), which enables consumers to generate content. Social commerce enables
vendors to reach different markets by integrating social interactions of consumers (Hargadon
& Bechky, 2006). Social commerce is a new development in ecommerce with the popularity
of social networking sites and social media that enable consumers to be active content
creators on the Internet. A powerful tool for this is social media, which differentiates e-
commerce from social commerce. Social commerce is the use of Web 2.0 applications to
support interaction of people in an online context where the contribution of users can help in
the acquisition of services and products (Liang & Turban, 2011). The popularity of social
media sites is the main element for development in this area, introducing new business
models as a result (Leitner & Grechenig, 2007; Liang & Turban, 2011). Social media
technologies have become social tools and online platforms are now places where users share
information and use opinions and experiences of others in music, photographs, insight and
knowledge (Lai & Turban, 2008). In this era, SNSs and the attraction of its applications play
an important role in the development of social media (Johann, Bartl, Ernst, & Hans, 2006;

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Liang & Turban, 2011). The mission of SNSs is to create online communities where
members can share and seek common interests, activities, experiences and information (Shin,
2010). Social commerce statistics show that this is a promising phenomenon. Social
commerce is introducing new business models based on online communities where the
objective is to bring features of Web 2.0 technologies to e-commerce in order to design
customer-oriented business. The businesses can develop an online community and encourage
their consumers to share their knowledge, experiences, and information about their products
or services, which forms social commerce strategy for them. Alternatively, the firms may join
popular SNSs such as Facebook and sell their product through this channel or ask their
consumers to like their page or product to benefit from social commerce. Many companies
have their Facebook page and ask their consumers to share their comments about the products
or the services on these social platform, which help them to introduce their products or
services. Channel, H&M, Selfridge, Dell and many other shops are examples of brands that
use social commerce in this context.

The experience of consumers in an online environment enabled by social media is different to

that offline, as the customers have social interactions with other individuals (Do-Hyung,
Jumin, & Ingoo, 2007). Today researchers claim that through social media and the emergence
of social platforms such as forums and communities, ratings and reviews, and referrals and
recommendations, consumers do have sociability. In addition, relationships between e-vendor
and consumers are in fact personal. These social platforms are social commerce constructs,
which this research will investigate. SCCs are social platforms which have emerged from
Web 2.0 and empowered consumers to generate content and share their experiences. They
also use others’ information, offer advice and share experiences in these platforms providing
a source for online social support. Although, SCCs have the same functions to facilitate the
sharing of information and establishing social support platforms for consumers, they are
different in their technical capabilities. Ratings and reviews are one of the constructs that
shape social commerce. Individuals can easily post their product reviews online (Chen, Xu, &
Whinston, 2011) and rate products. These reviews and ratings give comprehensive
information about products for the benefit of other potential customers. Research shows that a
popular product review by a third party is growing (Yubo & Jinhong, 2005). It is argued that
reviews generated by a third party reduce customers’ need for advertising information (Yubo
& Jinhong, 2005). Therefore, reviews and ratings seem to generate effective information for
customers. Additionally, the engagement of consumers in co-creation and content generation
empowers them (Füller et al., 2009), where they are able to learn about others’ experiences
about a product, for instance. Consumers are increasingly co-creating value with firms
(Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Empowerment refers to the capability of social
technologies to enable people to have social interaction and collaborate on the Internet (Füller
et al., 2009). Research shows that customer feedbacks and ratings promote a higher level of
trust (Ba & Pavlou, 2002; Ono et al., 2003). However, information related to the identity of
reviewers has an effect on community members’ perceptions (Chris, Anindya, & Batia,2008).
This issue has been raised as a result of fake ratings and reviews produced by third parties. E-

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vendors now have to consider whether to take actions to persuade reviewers to give more
information about their identity (Chris et al., 2008) to assure consumers about the authenticity
of ratings and reviews. Recommendations and referrals, the other construct of SCCs, are
likely to play an important role on social commerce intention. Research shows, in an online
context, as customers cannot experience the products or services, consumers should rely more
on other consumers’ experiences such as their product recommendations (Senecal & Nantel,
2004). In a high street shop, customers spend their time in store and interact with the staff
whereas in an online shop it is a major challenge to create an online store which is socially
rich (Kumar, Novak, & Tomkins, 2010). The third construct of social commerce is forums
and communities. Online communities and Internet forums are social environment that
facilitate social interaction of individuals. Members of online communities participate in
different group activities and support other members through their social interactions and
communications in the provided platform (Bagozzi & Dholakia, 2002). They use social
technologies, such as social media, online communities and other Web 2.0 applications, to
support other members by their experience and information sharing.

Vo Thuan Hai Department of Business Administration, Soongsil University, Korea

European Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Vol. 6, No. 05, August 2017

In this society community, people often use social network such as Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Classmates.com and Yelp to connect the others who have some in commons
through sharing status, videos, clips, and feedback as well as shopping habits behaviors.
Businesses activities always consider increasing the quantity of customers and keep their own
loyalty customers as one of their major strategy. Communication channel (Aljifri et al., 2003;
Ahn et al., 2007) is the cheapest, effective and convenient method. Therefore, there have
been so many setting up and running channels throughout social media that allow customers
embracing to communicate, search information and transact with businesses. The network of
customer has spread out in many edges of social network as discussion forums, bulletin
boards, list servers, chat rooms, newsgroups, email, personal Web pages, social networks,
and blogs. Both Shin et al., (2008) and Swanynthan et al. (2002) show people's purchase
decision for any product is influenced by their cognition of that product such as trust and
perceived its usefulness. But not many sufficient research framework examine referring to
verify how influence of trust and perceive usefulness of a product affect on making purchase
decision throughout using social network for e-commerce. Theory of social network is a
study of social networks and their affections on the relationships related with a person, group,
or organization which can affect persons’ beliefs or behaviors (Bagozziet al., 2002). The
activities of relation could comprise the feelings people have for each other, the exchange of
information or recommendation, and peoples’ influence on each other. Social network sites
(SNSs) is presented by Bronner (2010) as web-based services that allow individuals to (1)
build a public or semipublic profile (2) articulate a list of people to share a connection, and
(3) view and traverse their list of connections. Its functions could allow individuals to meet
strangers and enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks.

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 Objective of Study
1. To examine the implication of digital marketing in consumer purchase decision and to
find out that the consumers are aware of digital marketing and the digital channels
influence in their purchase decision.

2. To evaluate the various channels preferred by consumers for buying decision over
traditional channels.

3. To analyse the impact of social media on consumer buying behaviour.

4. To find out which is the best social media preferred by customers.

5. To have a critical understanding of varied concepts of social media marketing and the
online advertisement

Scope of the Study

 It gives information about the scope of growth of the companies into Digital
platform
 It shows the rising growth of consumers purchase decision on various E-
platforms.
 It provides the information about the preference and choices of the different
customers.
 The study also gives information regarding the expansion of products and
services on various platforms.
 It gives the clarity of the consumer mindset towards their future consumption
patterns.

Page | 23
 Research Methodology

Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the problem. It may be

understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically.

In it we study the various steps that all generally adopted by researcher in studying his
research problem along with the logics behind them.

Research Objective:
The prime objective of this research is to find factors that mainly influences the
consumer purchase decision and how digital and social media marketing attracts the
consumer for their purchase.

Research Design:

Descriptive research Design method was used to study on for the analysis. This will
be helpful for Companies to enhance new marketing strategy to expand into the market.

Research Instrument:

A Structured questionnaire was used as a tool to know about the role of Digital and
Social media marketing on consumer buying behaviour. The questionnaire that have been
provided included necessary questions that can be freely responded.

Sampling Frame:

Study Population: Ahmedabad

Sampling Size: 214
Sampling technique: Non Probabilitistic Sampling

Page | 24
Data Collection:Primary Data (Survey) and Secondary Data (Newspapers/ articles)
Analysis & Interpretation

1. Gender

Male 146
Female 68

32%

Male
Female

68%

Interpretation:

According to our survey, we found out that males are mostly using digital platforms
that affects their purchase decision compared to females ie 68%.

Page | 25
2. Age

<20 12
21-25 128
26-30 47
31-35 15
36 & above 12

140 128

120

100

80

60 47

40

12 15 12
20

0
<20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36 & above

Interpretation:

According to the research, nowadays youths are the ones who gets affected and
influenced because of social and digital platforms as it is seen that highest ratio
of the users are of between the age of 21-25 and then afterwards 26-30 with the
second ranking.

Page | 26
3. Occupation

Student 112
Job 59
Businessman 43

20%

Student
52%
Job
28% Businessman

Interpretation:

Nowadays students who are very much influenced by the digital platforms as it
is observed that 52% of the respondents are the students who are using the digital
platforms. Then after the working people are using digital platform for buying the
product.

Page | 27
4. How Frequently Do you access Social Media channels?

Daily 171
weekly 31
Monthly 12
Yearly 0

Monthly
6%
weekly
14%

Daily
80%

Interpretation:

On the basis of the research, it is analysed that consumers access the social
media platforms on the daily basis. 80% of the overall respondents are going through
digital platforms daily.

Page | 28
5. Which Social Media Channels do you access the most?

Facebook 159
LinkedIn 82
Instagra
m 188
Twitter 78
YouTube 69
Others 27

200 188
180
159
160

140

120

100
82 78
80 69
60

40
27
20

0
Facebook LinkedIN Instagram Twitter YouTube Others

Interpretation:

Instagram and Facebook are the trending social media channels that have been
accessed by the youths nowadays. It is seen that they are having the highest market with 188
and 159 respectively. These are the platforms which is highly preferred by the consumers
which influence their behaviour.

Page | 29
6. Are you aware about social media marketing or online advertising?

Yes 193
No 21

10%

90%

Yes No

Interpretation:

In this digital era, it is analysed that most of the consumers are aware about social
media marketing or online advertising. The effectiveness of the marketing strategies can be
observed that 90% of the respondents are having awareness regarding Digital platforms.

Page | 30
7. Do you agree that social media marketing has the potential of affecting
your behaviour?

Strongly Disagree 5
Disagree 6
Neutral 73
Agree 79
Strongly Agree 51

Strongly Disagree
2% Disagree
3%

Strongly Agree Neutral

24% 34%

Agree
37%

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral

Agree Strongly Agree

Interpretation:

On an average about 65% of people agreed that digital platform has the potential of
affecting their behaviour towards any product or service. The rest 10% of the
consumers who are not that much aware about the online platform are not getting
influenced.

Page | 31
8. For enhancing the effectiveness of social media marketing which source
must be accessed?

Social Advertising Sites 149

Social News 149
Media Sharing Sites 125
Blogs 89

Blogs 89

Media Sharing Sites 125

Social News 149

Social Advertising Sites 149

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

Interpretation:

According to the survey, it is observed that the social advertisement on various

platforms like Instagram, Facebook etc. and the media sharing sites like Gaana.com,
YouTube etc are playing a louder role in affecting the behaviour of consumers.

Page | 32
9. Are you a regular reader of blogs on Internet?

Yes 105
NO 109

110

109
109

108

107

106

105
105

104

103
Yes NO

Interpretation:

Bloggers are the strong source that influence the consumers to buy or consume the
product. But somewhere some people are not that much following to the blogs on the
internet. Hence it has a 50% of ratio that affects the human behaviour.

Page | 33
10. For what purpose do you access digital platforms?

Writing Blogs 36
Viewing Online Ads 152
Interaction with Friends and Family 177
Seeking opinion of product and
service 146
Others 2
177
152

146
36

Interpretation:

According to the research, 177 respondents’ access digital platforms for interacting
with the friends and family and then after for viewing online advertisements played on
different platforms. Some of the respondents i.e. 146 even access social platforms for having
a view of product or service that varies to the traditional platforms.

Page | 34
11. Do you agree that you have been accessing social media sites for seeking
opinions concerning products and services?

Strongly Disagree 4
Disagree 8
Neutral 60
Agree 98
Strongly Agree 44

Strongly Agree 44

Agree 98

Neutral 60

Disagree 8

Strongly Disagree 4

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Interpretation:

Based upon the survey it is very much clear that majority of the respondents (202/214) agree
to the fact that they have been accessing social media sites for seeking opinion regarding
various products or services. This clearly shows the influence of social media and digital
media on the users .

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12. Do you believe that advertising through digital and social media channels
are effective in comparison to traditional marketing?

Yes 192
NO 22

NO; 22

Yes; 192

Interpretation:

192 Respondents believe that advertising through digital and social media channels is
highly effective compared to traditional methods of marketing.

Page | 36
13. Are you able to gain larger information on social media marketing
comparison to other channels?

Yes 133
No 27
Sometimes 54

133

54

27

Yes No Sometimes

Interpretation:

According to the survey a total of 133 respondents accept that they are able to gain
more information on social media marketing when compared to other channels, while 53
respondents feel that sometimes. 27 Respondents disagree with the fact that they are able to
gain more information on social media marketing compared to other channels.

Page | 37
14. What are the reasons for shopping online through digital media?

Convinience 133
Availability of Extensive Information 131
Product Reviews 163
Sales/Offers 164
Others 1

Others1

Sales/Offers 164

Product Reviews 163

Availability of Extensive Information 131

Convinience 133

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Interpretation:

In Context of the survey carried out, it lists out the various factors that motivates
people for shopping thorough digital platforms. Most of the repondants feel that online mode
of shopping feels convenient to them. It also helps them to gain extensive information

Page | 38
regarding a product or a service and then take their choice of decision. Respondents also feel
that due to the availability of product reviews, it becomes easy for them to study the
performance and reviews about the product. Majority of the repondants feel that it is the
offers and the discounts on online platforms that makes it more favourable when compared to
other modes of shopping.

15. Rate the following Parameters.

(As 1 says Highly Recommended and 5 says Least Recommended)

A. Convenience
90
82
80

70

60

50 46
40
40
30
30

20 16

10

0
1 2 3 4 5

Highly Recommended Rating Least Recommended

Interpretation:

Respondents have a feeling of convenience while shopping through online platforms.

The delivery of the product at their doorstep is found to be very convenient in everyday life
as it saves a lot of time and efforts.

Page | 39
B. Availability of Extensive Information:

90
82
80

70

60

50 46
40
40
30
30
20 16

10

0
1 2 3 4 5

Highly Recommended Rating Least Recommended

Interpretation:

Each and every customer wants a detailed information about the product they wish to
purchase. Therefore, through online portals it becomes very easy to fetch information
regarding a particular product or a service. Majority of the repondants believe that through
digital platforms it is easy to fetch extensive information about a product or a service.

Page | 40
C. Product Reviews:

90
82
80

70

60

50 46
40
40
30
30

20 16

10

0
1 2 3 4 5

Highly Recommended Rating Least Recommended

Interpretation:

Product Reviews play a vital role while making purchase decisions. Therefore most of
the respondents also feel that availability of product reviews helps them study about the
product better and then take action.

Page | 41
D. Sales/Offers:

90
82
80

70

60

50 46
40
40
30
30

20 16

10

0
1 2 3 4 5

Highly Recommended Rating Least Recommended

Interpretation:

Sales and offers on online/ Digital platforms play a key role for shopping on
online modes. Digital modes of shopping always provide good discounts and sales for the
customers when compared to other modes of shopping.

People always want products with their prices slashed or at a good rate. Therefore
digital modes of shopping provide consumers with huge discounts to attract more customers.

Page | 42
16. How often have you clicked on digital media Ads to buy the product?

Extremely Often 24
Quite Often 73
Often 69
Slightly Often 40
Not at all 8

4% 11%
19%

34%

32%

Extremely Often Quite Often Often

Slightly Often Not at all

Interpretation:

Page | 43
 According to the research it is evident that majority of the respondents (206/214) have
been through digital ads to purchase a product online . This shows the familiarity of digital
modes of shopping within people to purchase a product.

17. Do you think that digital media is an effective way to reach you as a
customer?

Yes 203
NO 11

250

203
200

150

100

50 11

0
Yes NO

Interpretation:

Page | 44
 From this survey it is very clear 203 respondents out of 214 feels that digital media is
an effective way for shopping because of the various unique positive factors that it provides
to the customers upon their convenience.

Findings
 According to the survey, Majority of the respondents are between the age of 21-25
and 26-30 years. This shows that how much the youths are completely used to the
different digital and social media channels.
 In our survey we have tried to find out the use of social media channels by our
respondents and determined that more than 80% of people access the social media
channels Daily.
 Comparing all the available social media channels, Instagram and Facebook are the
most desirable modes of social media which are very popular amongst the people
today compared to LinkedIn and Twitter.
 Based upon the survey it was found that 193 respondents are familiar and aware about
the various social media marketing content and online advertisements.
 According to our research 65% of the respondents believe that social media marketing
has a huge potential of affecting their behaviour.
 It was found that Social Advertising sites, Social news, Media Sharing sites and blogs
have huge influence the people accessing social media channels.
 In Context of the survey carried out, 62% of the respondents feel that online mode of
shopping feels convenient to them.40% of them feel to gain extensive information
regarding a product or a service
 Respondents also feel that due to the availability of product reviews, it becomes easy
for them to study the performance and reviews about the product. 25% of the
respondents feel that the offers and discounts on online platforms are more favourable
 It has a 50% of ratio that affects the human behaviour due to bloggers on the internet.

Page | 45
  Based upon the survey we found that 82% of the respondents use digital platforms for
interaction with family and friends and 28% for viewing online advertisements and
also seeking an opinion about a product or a service.
 It was analysed that majority of the respondents (202/214) agree to the fact that they
have been accessing social media sites for seeking opinion regarding various products
or services.
 90% of the respondents believe that advertising through digital and social media
channels is highly effective in comparison to traditional marketing.
 According to the survey a total of 133 respondents accept that they are able to gain
more information on social media marketing when compared to other channels, while
54 respondents feel that sometimes. 27 Respondents disagree with the fact that they
are able to gain more information on social media marketing compared to other
channels.
 40% of the respondents also feel that availability of product reviews helps them study
about the product better.
 Digital modes of shopping always provide good discounts and sales for the customers
when compared to other modes of shopping.
 According to the research it is evident that majority of the respondents (206/214) have
been through digital ads to purchase a product online.
 From this survey it is very clear that 94% of the respondents feel that digital media is
an effective way for shopping.

Suggestions
The study shows that the social interaction of individuals influences consumer attitude
towards a product or service. The research also provides some implications for managers.
This research has shown the key role of trust in e-commerce and social commerce. Building
and maintaining trust through social media for online vendors is the main managerial
implication of this study.

Research identified that satisfaction level of consumers is seen to be high with respect to
social media advertising undertaken by consumer, but still it could be seen that there are
particular group of individuals who disagrees to this aspect. It has also been found that
consumer has been undergoing online advertisement using social media marketing and this
states that business must carry out appropriate advertisement using such media channels. It
has also been identified that in the present era if business needs to influence the behaviour of
consumer towards their product and services then they have to carry out their advertisement
using social media channels.

Businesses should improve the social media usage and understand that the mass audience is
no longer sitting in front of a Television, but instead, in front of personal computers, smart

Page | 46
phones and any other device with Internet access, spending a good part of their time using
social media, and being exposed to its content

Limitations of the Research

1. The present study is based on the reliability of the primary data. The sample units
were selected from the population having multidimensional features of a large group.
2. Due to lack of enough time and matter of monetary, we have taken only limited area
for the study that is Ahmedabad of Gujarat State of India.
3. The study is based on the opinion of respondent (questionnaire) and these can be bias.
4. The questionnaire might have excluded some important factor therefore the analysis
and interpretation might be exhaustive.
5. The samples are selected at random basis.

Conclusion
A key issue for marketers currently is to understand how digital and social media are used in
the purchase decision process ,their influence on buyer behaviour, and their role as a
marketing tool. The results overall show that the classical model of decision-making is valid
in describing the decision process of consumers in this social media age.

Social media users found decision-making to be easier and enjoyed the process
more, when compared to those who used other information sources. They also had greater
confidence and satisfaction during the process. Those who perceived the
information on social media to be of higher quality and greater quantity than expectations
were more satisfied overall. This suggests that information overload did not reduce consumer
satisfaction with social media.

Social media has enabled marketers to access and monitor consumer opinions on a
continual instant basis by listening-in and participating in online conversations, and
observing what people are discussing in blogs, forums and online communities. With such
vast information freely available on social media, it is up to businesses to harness it positively
to improve their product offerings, their customer relationship management, and their
profitability.

Page | 47
Recent advances on the internet and the development of social media have facilitated the
interconnectivity of consumers. Consumers have social interactions through social media
such as online forums, communities, ratings, reviews and recommendations. These
developments have introduced a new stream in e-commerce, called social commerce, which
empowers consumers to generate content and influence others. These interactions provide
different values for both business and consumers, indicating that social media increase the
level of trust in consumers and indirectly encourage intention to buy through social
networking sites.

The results of data analysis reveal that social media empower participants to generate content
through online communities, reviews and recommendations. This research shows that
advancements in the internet along with social media have empowered customers. Consumers
are now content generators through social media. They share information and experiences
with other consumers and have easy access to one another’s information. This is a value that
can be useful for e-commerce adoption and social commerce intention. Because consumer
social interactions produce online social support, e-commerce adoption is being promoted to
establish trust and, consequently, users’ intention to buy.

Annexure
Questionnaire:

1. Name: __________________________

2. Gender:

○ Male ○ Female
3. Age:

○ Below 20 years
○ 21 - 25
○ 26 - 30
○ 31- 35
○ 36 and above
4. Occupation:

○ Student

Page | 48
 ○ Job
○ Businessman
5. How frequently do you access social media channels? 

○ Daily
○ Weekly
○ Monthly
○ Yearly
6. Which social media channels do you access the most?

□ Facebook
□ Linkdin
□ Instagram
□ Twitter
□ Other

7. Are you aware about social media marketing or online advertising?

○ Yes
○ No
8. Do you agree that social media marketing has the potential of affecting your
behavior?

○ Strongly Disagree
○ Disagree
○ Neutral
○ Agree
○ Strongly Agree
9. For enhancing the effectiveness of social media marketing which source must be
accessed?

□ Socail advertising sites

Page | 49
 □ Social news
□ Media sharing sites
□ Blogs
10. Are you a regular reader of blogs on the internet?

○ Yes
○ No
11. For what purpose do you access digital platforms? 

□ Writing blogs
□ Viewing online Advertisements
□ Interactions with friends and families
□ Seeking opinion of product and service
□ Other

12. Do you agree that you have been accessing social media sites for seeking opinions
concerning products and services?

○ Strongly disagree
○ Disagree
○ Neutral
○ Agree
○ Strongly agree
13. Do you believe that advertising thorough digital and social media channels are
effective in comparison to traditional advertising?

○ Yes
○ No

Page | 50
14. Are you able to gain larger information on social media marketing in comparison to
other channels? 

○ Yes
○ No
○ Maybe
15. What are the reasons for shopping online through Digital media?

□ Convenience
□ Availability of Extensive information
□ Product reviews
□ Sales/Offers
□ Other
16. Rate the following Parameters. As 1 says Highly Recommended and 5 says Least
Recommended:

A. Convenience

1 2 3 4 5
Highly Recommended ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Least Recommended

B. Availability of Extensive information

1 2 3 4 5
Highly Recommended ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Least Recommended

C. Product Reviews

1 2 3 4 5
Highly Recommended ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Least Recommended

D. Sales/offer 

1 2 3 4 5
Highly Recommended ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Least Recommended

Page | 51
17. How often have you clicked on digital media Ads to buy the product? 

○ Extremely often
○ Quite often
○ Often
○ Slightly often
○ Not at all
18. Do you think that digital media is an effective way to reach you as a customer?  *

○ Yes
○ No

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