Social Media And Its Impact On Consumer Purchase Decision - Samples

Question: Discuss about the Social Media And Its Impact On Consumer Purchase Decisionz. Answer: Introduction: I have studied two of the articles in the area of impact of social marketing. The first article is A study of the impact of social media on consumers and the other one is The impact of social media marketing medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation y. The first study was conducted by Hajli (2014) that focuses on social media marketing and its impact on the consumers. The second article is about the similar topic but it also involves the role of social media and its impact specifically on the purchase intentions and the brand loyalty of the customers of generation Y. this is the study that is conducted by Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi (2014). This study of Hajli (2014) identifies the benefits that are gained by the business in terms of using social media as the tool for marketing. In this study a multidisciplinary model has been devised. The model has been authorized by SEM-PLS that demonstrates the role of social media in the development of social commerce. The data that has been collected from the survey suggests that how social media helps the interactions between the consumers and the brands. At the section of the research paper, it has been realised that results has been discussed along with the implications and the limitations. It also focuses on the future direction of the research. The next article that is The impact of social media marketing medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation y attempts to study the social media marketing mediums and this impact on brand loyalty and purchase intention of the people. The study focuses mainly on generation Y because this is the generation that is more likely to be engaged with social media tools. Surveys have been used as the data collection tool and were distributed amongst Malaysian universities students. The results of the survey suggested that EWOM and online marketing communication is the most effective technique to promote the brand and to attain the customer loyalty. The findings of the research indicates that social media is the important marketing tool to reach and attract the younger generation people. The author also sheds light on the guidelines for global brand players that can be implemented by them in order to make use of social media for the purpose of marketing to attract the cus tomers. Methodology on both the articles: Quantitative data Both of these articles focus on quantitative data in order to conduct the research in accurate manner. in article A study of the impact of social media on consumers the questionnaire were formed to be distributed amongst the students that are analysed by 5 point Likert scale that start with strongly disagree to strongly agree. The study of Hajli (2014) was conducted with the help of survey so that the proposed model can be validated. It has been analysed that the study was conducted on UK and London students although some of the participants were from other countries as well. Another study of Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi (2014) also focuses on the undergraduate students for conducting the research. However, the students are from Malaysian universities. The dependent variable in this study is intention of the customer to make purchase on the social networking site. The data has been collected through the questionnaire in which the participants were invited through emails. SEM that is structural equation modelling has been used along with the Partial least square method. This is method that helps in managing the complex data. For developing the structural model between social media, trust, perceived usefulness and intention to buy, SmartPLS method has been used. As far another study is concerned, it has been analysed that the questionnaire is developed for the Malaysian students and then Likerts scale has been used to answer such questions. The sample size was 200. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first table in the research provides the quantitative data of how the respondent access to the internet, the next table is about how much hours they spent on internet and the third table is about analysing the reasons for using the internet. After that, the table specifies the reason why people so not go for online brand communities. In table 5, Cronbachs Alpha test was implemented on each of the five variables. Both of these articles are dependent n the data that has been collected from the primary sources stated above. This is because this is the most reliable source to collect the data. Qualitative data The study of Hajli (2014) has also made use of qualitative data by literature review method. Different prior research and articles have been studied to find out the affected variables in earlier times. The prior researches help in providing the base to the new research. The study of Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi (2014) also focuses on literature review as the secondary source of data in order to understand the basic concepts of the topic and the relevant terms. Findings: A study of the impact of social media on consumers The findings of the study suggests that the model that is PLS-SEM method indicates that social media helps in increasing the level of trust amongst the customers and also inspire them to buy the product. The results of the data analysis section suggest that social media allow the customers to generate the content on the online sites or communities in order to give recommendations to the brands and the companies. Gradually, these interactions between the companies and the customers results in development of trust. The impact of social media marketing medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation y The overall findings of the research suggest that the online communities such as E-WOM, online advertising etc. actively participates in encouraging the young generation to buy a particular products. There are various variables such as purchase intensions, brand loyalty, online communities, E-WOM, online advertisements has been analysed in this research. The last table of the findings suggest that the mean score of these variables are almost equal and this indicates that people are neutral against these variables and equally impacted by all of them. Critical analysis and Limitation: The theoretical implication of the research conducted by Hajli (2014) integrates the model of information technology with trust and social media so that this model can be adopted by the social ecommerce. As this study was conducted in 2013 thus there are possibilities that new aspects of social media and social commerce have been developed that can be integrated in this model further. Further, if the limitations of the research is considered, it has been analysed that sample that were collected for conducting the research were mostly from the single city. This may restrict the reach of the research results or its implication on the overall areas. This is the major limitation that this research has. As far as the future implications or the scope of future research is considered, it has been analysed that further research in this context can focus on examining the role of social media on the intention and the perceived usefulness and also to identify the effect of the same on the model framed. In the article, The impact of social media marketing medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation y, it has been analysed that all the objectives that has been specified in the research are achieved at the need. The article is suggests that the online portal especially E-WOM helps in effective brand promotion. The positive aspect of this study is that there are various test and data analysis methods that have been used for analysing the data. As far as the limitations of the article is considered, it has been analysed that the respondents that are approached in the research are only the university students and thus it cannot be a justified sample to analyse the impact of social media on the purchase intentions. This is because even the working class people are the customers of the products that are available online. Thus, the future scope of the research is to analyse the working class people those who falls under the category of generation Y. they can be the t arget audience for the next research. The difference between the impact on students and working class can also be analysed. Another limitation that can be analysed in this research article is that it is the research that is conducted in a university and the base of the research are the close ended answers of the students. This constraints the research area and the implication of the research on the overall generation Y. Recommendations: The research of Hajli (2014) would have been much effective if the sample size on which the research has been conducted would be larger. This is because the implication and the reach of the research can be expanded if the size of the sample is increased. Another improvement that is being recommended for the research is to collect the sample from other cities also as it is restricted to a single city only that can restrict the research approach. As far as the article named Balakrishnan, Dahnil and Yi (2014) is considered, it is recommended that if the research has sorted the data in a simplified manner than it would have been more understandable for the reader. Another recommendation that has been made for the research is to consider working class people as well. References Balakrishnan, B.K., Dahnil, M.I. and Yi, W.J., 2014. The impact of social media marketing medium toward purchase intention and brand loyalty among generation Y.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,148, pp.177-185 Hajli, M.N., 2014. A study of the impact of social media on consumers.International Journal of Market Research,56(3), pp.387-404.