The Impact of Social Media Marketing of E- Retailing Companies on the Buying Behavior of Consumers with Reference to Age Group of 18-40 Years in Navi Mumbai

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING OF E- RETAILING COMPANIES ON THE BUYING BEHAVIOR OF CONSUMERS WITH REFERENCE TO AGE GROUP OF 18-40 YEARS IN NAVI MUMBAI.

Thesis submitted to the

D.Y. Patil University, Navi Mumbai

School of Management

In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for

The award of the degree of

Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.)

Business Management

Submitted by

MRS. DEEPIKA JINDOLIYA ENROLLMENT NO.: DYP-MPhil-01460900002

Research Guide

Professor Dr. R. Gopal

Director & Head of the Department

D.Y. Patil University, School of Management,

Sector 4, Plot No. 10,CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai – 400614

March 2017.

The Impact of Social Media Marketing of E- retailing Companies on the Buying Behavior of Consumers With Reference to Age Group of 18- 40 Years in Navi Mumbai

Declaration

I hereby declare that the dissertation entitled ― THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BY E-RETAILING COMPANIES ON THE BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS WITH REFERENCE TO AGE GROUP 18- 40 YEARS IN NAVI MUMBAI‖ Submitted for the Award of Master of Philosophy in Business Management at the D.Y. Patil University, School of Management is my original work and the dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, associate-ship, fellowship or any other similar titles.

The material borrowed from other sources and incorporated in the dissertation has been duly acknowledge.

I understand that I myself could be held responsible and accountable for plagiarism, if any, detected later on.

The research papers published based on the research conducted out of the course of the study are also based on the study and not borrowed from other sources.

Date: Signature of student

Place: Enrolment number: DYP-MPHIL-01460900002

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Certificate

This is to Certify that the thesis entitled ―IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BY E-RETAILING COMPANIES ON THE BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMERS WITH REFERENCE TO AGE GROUP OF 18-40 YEARS IN NAVI MUMBAI‖ is a Bonafide Research Work carried out by Mrs.Deepika Jindoliya in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Masters of Philosophy in Business Management and that the thesis has not formed the basis for the award of any Degree, Diploma, Associate-ship, Fellowship or any other similar titles of any University or Institution.

Also it is certified that the thesis represents an independent work on the part of the candidate.

Place: Navi Mumbai

Date:

Signature of Director and Head of Department Signature of Guide

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am grateful to D.Y.Patil University, School of Management for having given me an opportunity of career enhancement by carrying out the current research work.

I am extremely thankful to my guide, mentor, philosopher Professor Dr. R. Gopal for having guided me with his valuable inputs and extending all his support throughout my research work. Without his able and valuable guidance this would not have been possible. I am immensely indebted to Dr.R. Gopal for ensuring the right direction and output of the research process.

I would like to convey my gratitude to Dr. Pradeep Manjrekar, Dr. M. Mariappan and Dr. Sachin Deshmukh for their guidance, advice and encouragement during the course work and paper publications.

I would also like to thank Mr. Sameer Yadav, Mr. Sandeep Surve, Ms. Vandna Salgaonkar and the administration staff of DY Patil University for helping me wherever needed.

I would also like to thank all the faculty members for their valuable inputs.

I sincerely thank my mother, father and brothers for their limitless support. I would also like to convey a special thanks to my husband for always being a source of encouragement to me.

Lastly I also thank everyone who has been directly and indirectly instrumental in the completion of my dissertation.

Place : Navi Mumbai. Deepika Jindoliya

Date : M.Phil.

Enrolment number: DYP-MPH01460900002

Table of Content

Chapter No. Title Page

No.

Cover Page I

Title II

Declaration III

Certificate IV

Acknowledgement V

Table Of Content VI

List Of Abbreviations VIII

List Of Tables IX

List Of Figures XIX

Executive Summary XXI

1 Introduction 1.

2. Literature Review & Research Gap 19

3. Objectives, Hypotheses &Research Methodology 56

4. Social Media 61

5. Consumer Behaviour 94

6. E-Retailing 103

7. Data Analysis 109

8. Findings and Conclusions 181

9. Recommendations 184

10. Annexure 187

Bibiliography 187

Webliography 193

Questionnaire 195

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List of Abbreviations

S.no. Abbreviations Full Form 1 ASSOCHAM Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India 2 BPI Business Performance Indicator 3 CPC Cost Per Click 4 CRM Customer Relationship Management 5 CAGR Compounded Annual Growth Rate 6 EBITD Earning Before Interest, Taxes and Depreciation 7 E-WOM Electronic Word OF Mouth 8 FB Facebook 9 IMC Integrated Marketing Communication 10 Li Linkedin 11 MAU Monthly Active Users 12 MNC Multi Nation Company 13 SE Search Engine 14 SM Social Media 15 SMM Social Media Marketing 16 SNS Social Networking Sites 17 Twt Twitter 18 USD United States Dollar 19 WOM Word Of Mouth 20 YT YouTube

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List of Tables

Table Details Page Number number 1. Type of information associated with questions 59 2. Calculation of sample size 60 3. Types of consumer behavior 95

4. Agreement level of respondents on the statements 110 about the impact of social media marketing on buying behavior 5. Binomial test to analyse responses on ―impact of social 110 media marketing‖ 6. Structural Equation Model to analyse ―impact of SMM‖ 111 7. Responses to rate social media as a marketing tool 111 8. Chi-Square test result to analyse responses to rate SM 112 as a marketing tool 9. Response on using social media account to log into e- 112 retail websites 10 Chi-Square test to analyse use of social media to login 112 e-retail website 11 Responses on whether the respondents login to e- 113 retailers website via their social media account 12. Chi-Square test for analyzing responses on whether the 113 respondents login to e-retailers website via their social media account. 13. Reason of purchasing from e-retailers via social media 113 account 14 Chi-Square test to analyse the responses on reason of 114 purchasing from e-retailers via social media account 15 Level of agreement on the statement that respondents 114 had no plan of purchasing anything but end up purchasing a product on seeing advertisement on social

media 16 Chi-Square test to analyse the response that 114 respondents end up purchasing a product on seeing advertisement on social media although there was no prior plan 17 Percentage of respondents using different social media 115 websites 18 Marascuillo procedure to compare more than two 116 proportions for use of different social media websites 19 Table on whether the ads on given SNSs are attractive 117 and appealing 20 Table on whether the offers and images on given SNSs 118 are genuine and correlate to actual product. 21. Table regarding respondent‘s intention of future 119 purchase after seeing advertisement on given smns 22. Table of basic data distribution according to gender 120 23 Table of level of agreement of respondents(gender- 121 wise) with the statement whether they are frequent users of social media 24 Chi-Square Tests to analyse the relationship between 121 gender and use of social media 25 Level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with 121 the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands 26 Chi Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 122 gender and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands 27 Level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with 122 the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media 28 Chi Square test to analyse relationship between gender 123 and ability of social media to extract response from customers

29 Level of agreement of respondents (gender- wise) with 123 the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use 30 Chi-Square test to analyse the relationship between 123 gender and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media 31 Level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with 124 the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media 32 Chi-Square test for relationship between gender and 124 respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media 33 Level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with 125 the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer 34 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between 125 gender and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers 35 Level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with 126 the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer 36 Chi-square test for analyzing the relationship between 126 gender and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception 37 Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing 127 for E-Retailers as per gender. 38 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between 127 gender and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool 39 Basic data distribution according to education 128

40 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 128 respondents are frequent users of social media 41 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between 129 education and frequency of use of social media 42 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 129 availability of social media has made them more informed about brands. 43 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 130 education and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands 44 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 130 they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media 45 Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between 131 education and ability of social media to extract response from customers 46 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 131 they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use 47 Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between 132 education and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media 48 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 132 they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media 49 Chi-Square Test for relationship between education and 133 respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media 50 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether 133 social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer 51 Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between 134 education and ability of social media to serve as an

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effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers 52 Education-wise Responses to the statement whether the 134 information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

53 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 135 education and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception 54 Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing 135 for E-Retailers as per education of respondent 55 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between 136 education and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool 56 Basic data distribution according to income of 136 respondents 57 Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing 137 for E-Retailers as per income of respondent 58 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between 138 income and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool 59 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether 138 respondents are frequent users of social media 60 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between 139 income and frequency of use of social media 61 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether 139 availability of social media has made them more informed about brands. 62 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 140 income and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands 63 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether they 140 are more likely to respond to social media marketing

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than traditional media 64 Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between income 141 and ability of social media to extract response from customers 65 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether they 141 are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use 66 Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between 142 income and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media 67 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether they 142 are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media 68 Chi-Square Test for relationship between income and 143 respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media 69 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether social 143 media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer 70 Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between 144 income and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers 71 Income-wise Responses to the statement whether the 144 information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer 72 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 145 income and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception 73 Basic data distribution according to occupation of 145 respondents 74 Occupation-wise Responses to the statement whether 146 respondents are frequent users of social media

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75 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between 146 occupation and frequency of use of social media 76 Occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether 147 availability of social media has made them more informed about brands. 77 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 147 occupation and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands 78 Occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether 148 they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media 79 Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between 148 occupation and ability of social media to extract response from customers 80 Occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether 149 they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use 81 Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between 149 occupation and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media 82 Occupation-wise Responses to the statement whether 150 they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media 83 Chi-Square Test for relationship between occupation 150 and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media 84 Occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether 151 social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer 85 Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between 151 occupation and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers

86 Occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether 152 the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer 87 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 152 occupation and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception 88 Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing 153 for E-Retailers as per occupation of respondent 89 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between 153 occupation and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool 90 Basic data distribution according to age 154 91 Age-wise Responses to the statement whether 155 respondents are frequent users of social media 92 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between Age 155 and frequency of use of social media 93 Age -wise Responses to the statement whether 156 availability of social media has made them more informed about brands. 94 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 156 Age and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands 95 Age -wise Responses to the statement whether they are 157 more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media 96 Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between Age 157 and ability of social media to extract response from customers 97 Age -wise Responses to the statement whether they are 158 more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use 98 Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between 158 Age and increased exposure to marketing

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communication due to social media 99 Age-wise Responses to the statement whether they are 159 more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media 100 Chi-Square Test for relationship between Age and 159 respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media 101 Age -wise Responses to the statement whether social 160 media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer 102 Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between Age 160 and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers 103 Age -wise Responses to the statement whether the 161 information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer 104 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between 161 Age and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception 105 Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing 162 for E-Retailers as per Age of respondent 106 Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between Age 162 and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool 107 Online shopping expenditure 163 108 Frequency of Internet Access 164 109 Change in Frequency of traditional Shopping 165 110 Analysis of Usage of social media 166 111 Analysis of e-retail website surfing behaviour 167 (i) Basic data distribution 167 (ii) Mean Rank table 167 (iii) Kruskal-Wallis test: 168 112 Comparison of the frequency of the purchase of different 169

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categories of products (i) Basic data distribution 169 (ii) Mean rank table 169 (iii) Kruskal-Wallis test to compare the frequency 170 113 Analysis of online product research by customers 171

114 Response about spending different time and effort for 172 different products 115 Table of most extensively researched product: A 173 comparative analysis 116 Table of number of websites visited before reaching at 173 purchasing decision 117 List of factors motivating customers to shop online 174

118 Table of basic data distribution of motivating factors 174

119 Mean Rank Table for motivating factors 175

120 Kruskal-Wallis test for analysing motivating factors 176 121 Most frequent E-tailing Websites 176 122 Respondents motivated to visit e-retailing website in 177 response to ads on social media 123 Respondents using social media account to login e- 177 retailing website 124 Respondents purchasing through social media 178

125 Reasons of purchasing via social media 178

126 Number of respondents sending link to family and 179 friends

127 Number of respondents writing reviews 179

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List of Figures

Figure Figure title Page number number 1. Representation of different types of social media 8 2. Consumer decision making process 10 3. Estimates of market size of online retail by 2020 15 by brokerages and consultancy firms 4. Commodity distribution in E-retailing 17 5. Honey comb model of consumer behavior 26 6. Number of social network users worldwide from 61 2010 to 2020 7. Facebook popularity 2004-2015 62 8. Percentage of global population using Facebook 63 by region 9. Logo of Twitter 67 10. Categories of content of twitter 69 11 Logo of Linkedin 73 12 Logo of pinterest 78 13 Logo of Instagram 79 14 Leading social networks according to number of 80 active users 15 Factors influencing online consumer‘s behaviour 99 16 Mobile share of online retail sales in India in 103 2014 and 2015 17. Growth of e-retailing in India 107 18. Path diagram 113 19. Bar chart for percentage of respondents using 117 different social media sites 20. Pie chart for gender distribution 120 21 Pie chart for number of respondents as per 128 education 22 Pie chart for number of respondents as per 137

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Income 23 Pie chart for number of respondents as per 146 Occupation 24 Pie chart for number of respondents as per Age 154 25 Pie Chart for online shopping expenditure of 163 respondents 26 Bar chart for mean rank of frequency of products 170 purchased online

Executive Summary

Social media is a phenomenon that has drawn a lot of attention both of companies and individuals interacting on the networking landscape. Social media offer affordable opportunities to reach large populations. Additionally, online campaigns on social media can benefit from the persuasive features of interactive multi-media systems Social media is a phenomenon that has become an important aspect in marketing mix and revolutionizing the way companies interact with customers.

The research ‖Impact of Social Media Marketing by E-Retailing Companies on the Buying Behaviour of Consumers With Reference to Age Group of 18-40 Years in Navi Mumbai‖ attempts to study how e-retailers can leverage social media to penetrate their markets and reach-out to their customers in a personal and direct manner. The report also discloses the influence of social media on consumer‘s online buying behavior.

The proposed research strives to understand the decision making process of consumer. As e retailing is worth millions of dollars it is of utmost importance for the companies to know the degree of impact their new social media marketing campaign would have on potential customers. It would help them in channelizing more money and effort towards the social marketing strategy which has maximum impact on consumer psyche.

Many factors are driving social marketers to conduct their work, at least in part, online. In some cases, online channels are displacing traditional media. With over 3.4 billion users worldwide (as per internetlivestats.com report), online channels offer affordable opportunities to reach large populations. Additionally, online campaigns can benefit from the persuasive features of interactive multi-media systems.

Many researchers and marketing moguls have called on social marketers to engage citizens though new media, but have also cautioned them to rethink their relationships with online audiences. Despite many advantages associated with online engagement, there is evidence that the social marketing field has neither fully realized the potential of online engagement

XXI nor developed the expertise required to carry out effective online social marketing campaigns. It calls for extensive research on the use of social media as marketing tool and impact of such marketing on consumer buying behavior. Today almost every internet user is familiar with social media irrespective of their profession, nationality, culture, race or religion etc.

E-retailing is a subset of e-commerce, which encapsulates all ―commerce‖ conducted via the Internet. It refers to that part of e-commerce which entails the sale of product merchandise and does not include sale of services viz. railway tickets, airlines tickets, job portals, etc.

India had an internet user base of about 462 million as of Dec 2016 (as per internetlivestats.com report). The penetration of e-commerce in India is low compared to markets like China, United States or France . As per the report of internetlivestats.com in 2014, nearly 75% (2.1 billion) of all internet users in the world (2.8 billion) lived in the top 20 countries. The remaining 25% (0.7 billion) is distributed among the other 178 countries. China, the country with most users (642 million in 2014), represents nearly 22% of total, and has more users than the next three countries combined (United States, India, and Japan). Among the top 20 countries, India is the one with the lowest penetration: 19% and the highest yearly growth rate. At the opposite end of the range, United States, Germany, France, U.K., and Canada have the highest penetration: over 80% of population in these countries has an internet connection. The industry consensus is that the penetration of e-commerce in India is growing at an unprecedented rate and this growth is at an inflection point.

In India, e-tailing has the potential to grow more than hundredfold to reach a value of USD 76 billion by 2021(as per ASSOCHAM Report 2016) but this value can even go up to nearly 120 billion as per the estimates of Morgan Stanley . The country‘s growing Internet-habituated consumer base, which will comprise about 180 million broadband users by 2020, along with a burgeoning class of mobile Internet users, will drive the e-tailing story.

Key drivers in Indian e-commerce are:

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 Large percentage of population subscribed to broadband Internet, burgeoning 3G internet users, and a recent introduction of 4G across the country.

 Explosive growth of Smartphone users, soon to be world's second largest smart phone user-base.

 Rising standards of living.

 Availability of much wider product range (including Direct Imports) compared to what is available at brick and mortar retailers.

 Competitive prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and reduced inventory and real estate costs.

 Increased usage of online classified sites, with more consumer buying and selling second-hand goods

With the rise of social media in recent years there has been a heightened interest from marketing professionals in the potential of social media for reaching consumers. The aim of this thesis is to further the understanding of consumer responses to marketing via social media. The rise of social media over the past decade has raised many questions about the effectiveness and impact of social media marketing. There are questions of if, how, and under what circumstances they work for marketing purposes. This thesis is intended to add to that emerging body of research. For this following objectives of thesis are enumerated:

OBJECTIVES:

 To identify the impact of social media marketing strategies of e- retailing companies on the buying behavior of customers.  To study the effectiveness of Social Media tools like face book, twitter, LinkedIn, youtube etc  To determine the demographic profile of customers who purchase products online from e-retailers.  To study on-line purchasing behavior of customers of age group 18- 40 years in Navi Mumbai.

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 To identify factors motivating customers to shop online.

The study thus attempts to integrate definitions and meanings of all the key concepts like Social Media Marketing, On-line Consumer Behaviour and E- Retailing in India. Data Collection and analysis is done to achieve the objectives of the study.

Methods of Data Collection:

The data for the purpose of the study would comprise of both primary and secondary data. Primary data had been collected by questionnaire survey method. A single questionnaire had been created and administered in different areas. The target audience for this study people in the age group of 18-40 from Navi Mumbai belonging to diverse demographic profile.

Reason of selecting Navi Mumbai as area of research: Navi Mumbai is selected as field of research which is a very well planned and organized area with a cosmopolitan constitution. With the existence of many government and private corporate offices, banks, financial institutions, business houses, malls, ports etc it provide a heterogeneous mix of population which helps in selecting an unbiased and random sample. The age group of 18-40 years is selected for the purpose of study because according to Mobile Association of India and ComScore report 2015, men under 35 and women under 40 are most indulgent in online shopping people under 40 are most active on social media as well. Therefore this age-group is the most relevant for study.

Questionnaire: It is a well framed questionnaire consist of 31 questions some of which have been divided into sub-questions in order to get an in depth knowledge of consumer behavior. The questionnaire comprised of different sections relating to the various aspects of social media marketing, buying behaviour etc. Essentially the questionnaire comprises of questions pertaining to following type of information:  Demographic Information

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 Usage of internet  Usages of social Media  Consumer Buying Behaviour  Product research process on social Media  Social Media Marketing tools  Impact of Social Media Sampling Technique : Random Sampling technique has been used for this study as in a Random sample from infinite population, selection of each item is controlled by the same probabilities and the successive selections are independent of one another. Sample Size: The required Sample size is 385 which is determined using the following formula:

Z 2 * (p) * (1-p)

ss = 2 c

SS= Sample Size Z = Z value (e.g. 1.96 for 95% confidence level) p = percentage picking a choice, expressed as decimal

c = margin of error, expressed as decimal Values Z-score value 1.96 P (percentage picking a choice) 0.5 c (margin of error) 0.05 ss (Sample Size) 385

As the required sample size is minimum 385 respondents, 450 questionnaires were sent to the respondents out of which 409 questionnaire were found to be reliable, complete and relevant to the study. Limitations of the study: The conclusions are drawn on the basis of data collected from Navi Mumbai and every caution has been taken to keep the

XXV sample unbiased and true representative of total population but it may not be applicable for other parts of nation due to demographic and socio-cultural diversity.

Major findings of the study: A} Association between the social media marketing and buying behavior of consumers:  It is proved that marketing via social media significantly effect the buying behavior of consumers.  It is established that majority of consumers consider social media as effective means of marketing.  The availability of social media has made consumers more informed about brands when making purchase decisions.  Majority of customers strongly agree to the statement that they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased media use. B} Association between demographic factors and the effect of social media marketing on consumer behavior:  Effect of social media is independent of gender  Effect of social media is independent of education  Effect of social media is independent of occupation  Effect of social media is independent of income  Effect of social media is independent of age C} Advertisements by e-retailing companies posted on social networking accounts motivate customers to visit and purchase from the particular e- retailing website. D} Reviews on social networking sites are important factors in motivating customers to purchase from E-retailers. E} Apparels and electronics are most frequently purchased items from E- retailers. F} Majority of respondents agreed to the fact that their frequency of traditional shopping has decreased as a result of online shopping.

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Recommendations: A} As the thesis establishes a significant relationship between impact of social media marketing and consumer behavior, its optimal use is the key to success in attracting more customers. It is important to make advertisements attractive and customize them as per the likes and dislikes of customers and prospects. The best way to do so is to incorporate appealing images to text based announcements to make them more appealing. B} Facebook is most effective tool of marketing as per the study but now a considerable amount of people are using new SNSs like instagram, pinterest ect. so there is an opportunity to use these new social sites optimally. C} According to the study the most frequently purchased items are Apparel and electronics so special focus is required for the marketing these segment.

Significance of Study: The origination of the internet created an entire new experience for consumers regarding gathering information, comparing products or prices and the possibility of purchasing on the internet. Therefore consumer behaviour on the internet is an important factor for marketers. To predict consumer behaviour on the internet marketers need to understand how, where and why consumers behave online. This study aims to explore the impact of social media marketing on the behavior of customers.

The study will create more understanding about why and how on-line consumers go through their buying decision process (BDP). The research can attribute to more efficient social media marketing strategies and more effective approach to attract customers and serve them better to ensure frequent future visits and purchases.

The research findings will help in drawing a generalized conclusion regarding the influence of social media marketing practices of e-retailers on consumers. The result of the proposed research will be capable of drawing a modified and more effective marketing policy.

Scope of future study: There is a scope of more focused study on each category of product. Similar studies can also be conducted in different cities with different demographics.

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

“Getting a new idea adopted, even when it has obvious advantages, is difficult. Many innovations require a lengthy period of many years from the time when they become available to the time when they are widely adopted. Therefore, a common problem for many individuals and organizations is how to speed up the rate of diffusion of an innovation.” : Everett Rogers (2003)

With the rise of social media in recent years there has been a heightened interest from marketing professionals in the potential of these new outlets for reaching consumers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that properly executed social media marketing can take a company to new heights.

In today‘s technology driven world, social networking sites have become an avenue where retailers can extend their marketing campaigns to a wider range of consumers. The tools and approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan (Mangold and Faulds ). This is especially true for companies striving to gain a competitive advantage. This research work examines the adoption of social media as an extension of the marketing strategy by on-line retail companies. Recent years have seen a remarkable transformation in the way India shops and trades. E-commerce has taken the world of retail by storm and captivated the imagination of an entire generation of business people, with e-commerce ventures with various business and commercial models. The explosive growth in the last few years has already catapulted the biggest e-retail firms among others. Various industry estimates project that the sector will further growth five to seven times over the next four to five years. Online retail, while today representing a small fraction of the e-commerce space is one of the fastest growing segments. It is also the most challenging in fulfilling its fundamental proposition of transcending physical boundaries to deliver a variety of products to the customer‘s doorstep.

The previous few years have seen an unprecedented growth in the number of online business players. The past decade can be called an era of emergence of many e-retailing companies. These companies are posing challenge not only to each other but also to regular brick and mortar business firms. New e-retailers are entering in market every day. It is of utmost importance for the companies to determine the degree of impact of social media marketing practices on decision making process of consumers.

This ever increasing competition has called for adoption of new marketing strategies, new media and ―out of box thinking‖ to influence the customer to visit the site and make purchases.

Despite many advantages associated with online engagement, there is evidence that the social marketing field has neither fully realized the potential of online engagement nor developed the expertise required to carry out effective online social marketing campaigns.

Social media offer affordable opportunities to reach large populations. Additionally, online campaigns on social media can benefit from the persuasive features of interactive multi-media systems. Social media is now an integrated part of the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Social media marketing is a powerful online marketing tool, it is typically used to supplement other marketing methods this form of marketing is driven by word- of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than paid media.

The social marketing field has neither fully realized the potential of online engagement nor developed the expertise required to carry out effective online social marketing campaigns. It calls for extensive research on the use of social media as marketing tool and impact of such marketing on consumer buying behavior.

India had an internet user base of about 354 million as of June 2015 and is expected to cross 500 million in 2016. The penetration of e-commerce in India is low compared to markets like the United States or France but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding millions new entrants every month. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.

1.1 Social media:

Social media are computer-mediated technologies that allow the creating and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

1.1(a) Concept: In 2016, Merriam-Webster defined social media as "Forms of electronic communication (such as Web sites) through which people create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc.‖ Social media is generally defined by its ability to connect people but it can‘t be the sole criterion as it will include many modes of communication. Therefore it is important to enumerate the characteristics which are common in all social media. The common features of all social media are:

 Social media are interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications.  User-generated content such as text posts or comments, digital photos or videos, as well as data generated through all online interactions, are the lifeblood of the social media organism.  Users create service-specific profiles for the website or app, which are designed and maintained by the social media organization.  Social media facilitates the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals and/or groups.

Social media uses web-based and mobile technologies on smartphones and tablet computers to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals, communities and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, and modify user-generated content or pre-made content posted online. They introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between businesses, organizations, communities and individuals. Social media

3 changes the way individuals and large organizations communicate. These changes are the focus of the emerging field of technoself studies.

Social media differs from paper-based or traditional electronic media such as TV broadcasting in many ways, including quality, reach, frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence. Social media operates in a dialogic transmission system (many sources to many receivers). This is in contrast to traditional media which operates under a monologic transmission model (one source to many receivers), such as a paper newspaper which is delivered to many subscribers. Some of the most popular social network websites are Facebook, messenger, linkdin, Google+, youtube, instagram, snapchat, twitter etc.

Social media technologies take many different forms including blogs, business networks, enterprise social networks, forums, microblogs, photo sharing, products/services review, social bookmarking, social gaming, social networks, video sharing, and virtual worlds. The development of social media started off with simple platforms such as sixdegrees.com.

The Social Network Revolution has led to the rise of the networking sites. Research shows that the audience spends 22 percent of their time on social networking sites, thus proving how popular social media platforms have become. This increase is because of the smart phones that are now in the daily lives of most humans.

The most well defining concept of social media is called Honeycomb framework. The "honeycomb framework" defines how social media services focus on some or all of seven functional building blocks. In a 2011 article, Jan H. Kietzmann, Kristopher Hermkens, Ian P. McCarthy and Bruno S. Silvestre describe the honeycomb relationship as "presenting a framework that defines social media by using seven functional building blocks: identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups." These building blocks help explain the engagement needs of the social media audience. For instance, LinkedIn users are thought to care mostly about identity, reputation, and relationships, whereas YouTube's primary features are sharing, conversations, groups, and reputation. Many companies build

4 their own social "containers" that attempt to link the seven functional building blocks around their brands. These are private communities that engage people around a narrower theme, as in around a particular brand, vocation or hobby, rather than social media containers such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

1.1 (b) Types of social media:

Some of the most popular current forms of social media are social networking websites such as Facebook, which surpassed over one billion active monthly users in October 2012. There are several types of online platforms classified under the vast umbrella of social media. These categories include:

Social Networks: Social networking websites allow users to build web pages featuring personal portfolios and interests. These pages are used to connect with friends, colleagues and other users in order to share media, content and communications. Examples of social networks include Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Bebo.

Visual social networks are becoming more popular, with Instagram having now surpassed Twitter in its amount of users. Data has shown that a tweet that includes an image has a 150% more chance of being shared. There are also new networks such as Snapchat and Periscope, that are slowly growing in terms of popularity, especially with the younger generations.

Web blogs: Some of the oldest and most popular forms of social media are blogs. Blogs are often viewed as online journals that order content chronologically, or by date, month, year and category. Users can also maintain "vlogs," or video blogs, featuring shared or homemade videos. Blogging websites include WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr.

Microblogs: Microblogs are blogging tools that feature short posts, as opposed to journal-style posts. Users are usually restricted to posting a few lines of text, or uploading individual images and videos. Microblogging is particularly common for posting quick updates and distributing content via mobile devices. Notable microblogging sites include Twitter and Tumblr.

However, social networks such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and MySpace also have their own microblogging features.

Content Communities: Users on content communities organize, share and comment on different types of content, including images and videos. YouTube, Flickr and scribd are examples of content communities.

Wikis: Wiki websites allow a community of people to add and edit content in a community-based database. One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.

Podcasts: Podcasts are audio and video files available through subscription services such as Apple iTunes. The term "podcast" is a neologism derived from "broadcast" and "pod" (as in "iPod"), since Podcasts are often listened to on portable media players. Other types of classification of social media include the following:

 Rating and review sites (e.g. Yelp)  Social bookmarking or social tagging features (e.g. Digg; Stumble Upon)  Forums and discussion boards (e.g. Yahoo! ; Answers)  Virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life; World of Warcraft)  Music and audio sharing (e.g. Spotify; Pandora Radio)

Social media can also be classified by their ability to facilitate certain social functions. These social functions often involve identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. Kaplan and Haenlein created a classification scheme using six different types of social media-- collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia), blogs and microblogs (e.g. Twitter), content communities (e.g. YouTube), social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), virtual game worlds (e.g. World of Warcraft), and virtual social worlds (e.g. Second Life).

1.1 (c) CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Online platforms that enable users to:

 create, share, adapt and reuse content engage in digital dialogue and collaboration  create linkages, groups and communities  have peer-to-peer contact  have social interactions with other users  create and maintain their own user profiles and IDs

Online platforms:

 are largely public, but walled gardens exist within some platforms  are accessible 24/7 from a range of devices and locations  generally expose users to an unknown audience

Content on a social media platform is:

 discoverable  community moderated  persistent  subject to conditions of use  Able to connect people  Sharing within communities  Operate within the conditions of certain terms and conditions

Social media embraces web-based and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication between organisations, communities and individuals. The social media map provides a visual summary of some of the most common types of social media platforms, and their purposes. We‘ve also identified the characteristics that are a feature of all social media platforms.

As it is evident from the following pictorial representation, there are hundreds of social media websites. This list is not exhaustive, there are numerous more websites. For the purpose of this research the most popular social network websites have been taken into consideration. These social networking websites have maximum number of followers all over world and hence serve as effective tool of marketing.

Figure: 1 Representation of different types of social media

Source: www.teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz. ( 10 Jan 2017)

1.3Consumer buying behavior: Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy their needs and wants.

It is also concerned with the social and economic impacts that purchasing and consumption behaviour has on both the consumer and wider society. Consumer behaviour blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, marketing and economics, especially behavioural economics. It examines how emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, personality lifestyles and behavioural variables such as usage rates, usage occasion, loyalty, brand advocacy, willingness to provide referrals, in an attempt to understand people's wants and consumption are all investigated in formal studies of consumer behaviour. The study of consumer behaviour also investigates the influences, on the consumer, from groups such as family,

8 friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general. Consumer behaviour, in its broadest sense, is concerned with how consumers select and use goods and services. The study of consumer behaviour is concerned with all aspects of purchasing behaviour - from pre-purchase activities through to post-purchase consumption and evaluation activities. It is also concerned with all persons involved, either directly or indirectly, in purchasing decisions and consumption activities including brand-influencers and opinion leaders.

People involved at different stages of buying decision making can be categorized as follows:

 The Initiator - the person who proposes a brand (or product) for consideration;  The Influencer- someone who recommends a given brand;  The Decider- the person who makes the ultimate purchase decision;  The Purchaser - the one who orders or physically buys it;  The User - the person who uses or consumes the product.

The consumer buying process is depicted as consisting of 5 distinct stages:

The purchase decision begins with the problem recognition stage which occurs when the consumer identifies a need, typically defined as the difference between the consumer's current state and their desired state. The strength of the need drives the entire decision process. Information search describes the phase where consumers scan both their internal memory and external sources for information about products or brands that will potentially satisfy their need. The aim of the information search is to identify a list of options that represent realistic purchase options. Throughout the entire process, the consumer engages in a series of mental evaluations of alternatives, searching for the best value. Towards the end of the evaluation stage, consumers form a purchase intention, which may or may not translate into an actual product purchase. Even when consumers decide to proceed with an actual purchase, the decision-process is not complete until the consumer consumes or experiences the product and engages in a final post purchase evaluation; a stage in which the purchaser's actual

9 experience of the product is compared with the expectations formed during the information search and evaluation stages. The stages of the decision process normally occur in a fixed sequence. However it should be noted that information search and evaluation can occur throughout the entire decision process, including post-purchase.

Figure 2: Consumer Decision Making Process

Source: http://visual.ly/consumer-decision-making-process(15 Dec 2016)

Problem Recognition

The first stage of the purchase decision process begins with problem recognition (also known as category need or need arousal). This is when the consumer identifies a need, typically defined as the difference between the

10 consumer's current state and their desired or ideal state. A simpler way of thinking about problem recognition is that it is where the consumer decides that he or she is 'in the market' for a product or service to satisfy some need or want. The strength of the underlying need drives the entire decision process.

Consumers become aware of a problem in a variety of ways including:

 Out-of-Stock/ Natural Depletion: When a consumer needs to replenish stocks of a consumable item e.g. ran out of milk or bread  Regular purchase: When a consumer purchases a product on a regular basis e.g. newspaper, magazine  Dissatisfaction: When a consumer is not satisfied with the current product or service  New Needs or Wants: Lifestyle changes may trigger the identification of new needs e.g. the arrival of a baby may prompt the purchase of a cot, stroller and car-seat for baby  Related products: The purchase of one product may trigger the need for accessories, spare parts or complementary goods and services e.g. the purchase of a printer leads to the need for ink cartridges  Marketer-induced problem recognition: When marketing activity persuades consumers of a problem (usually a problem that the consumer did not realise they had)  New Products or Categories: When consumers become aware of new, innovative products that offer a superior means of fulfilling a need. Disruptive technologies such as the advent of wireless free communications devices can trigger a need for plethora of products such as a new mouse or printer.

Information Search and Evaluation of Alternatives

During the information search and evaluation stages, the consumer works through processes designed to arrive at a number of brands (or products) that represent viable purchase alternatives. Typically consumers first carry out an internal search; that is a scan of memory for suitable brands. The evoked set

11 is a term used to describe the set of brands that a consumer can elicit from memory and is typically a very small set of some 3- 5 alternatives. Consumers may choose to supplement the number of brands in the evoked set by carrying out an external search using sources such as the Internet, manufacturer/brand websites, shopping around, product reviews, referrals from peers and the like.

Purchase decision

Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not translate into an actual purchase. The extent to which purchase intentions result in actual sales is known as the sales conversion rate.

Happy hour, where two products can be purchased for the price of one, is a strong call-to-action because it encourages consumers to buy now rather than defer purchasing to a later time

Organizations use a variety of techniques to improve conversion rates. The provision of easy credit or payment terms may encourage purchase. Sales promotions such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now rather than later. Advertising messages with a strong call-to-action are yet another device used to convert customers. A call-to-action is any device designed to encourage immediate sale and might include an offer that is only available for a limited time (e.g. 'Offer must expire soon'; 'Limited stocks available') or a special deal usually accompanied by a time constraint (e.g. 'Order before midnight to receive a free gift with your order'; 'Two for the price of one for first 50 callers only'). The key is to provide consumers with compelling reasons to purchase promptly rather than defer purchase decisions.

Post-purchase evaluation

Following purchase and after experiencing the product or service, the consumer enters the final stage, namely post-purchase evaluation. The

12 consumer's purchase and post-purchase activities have the potential to provide important feedback to marketers. Foxall (2005) suggested that post- purchase evaluation provides key feedback because it influences future purchase patterns and consumption activities.

The post purchase stage is where the consumer examines and comparies product features, such as price, functionality, and quality with their expectations. Post purchase evaluation can be viewed as the steps taken by consumers to correlate their expectations with perceived value, and thus influences the consumer‘s next purchase decision for that good or service. For example, if a consumer buys a new phone and his or her post-purchase evaluation is positive, he/she will be encouraged to purchase the same brand or from the same company in the future. This is also known as "post-purchase intention". On the contrary, if a consumer is dissatisfied with the new phone, he or she may take actions to resolve the problem. This could involve requesting a refund, making a complaint, or deciding not to purchase the same brand or from the same company in the future. After acquisition, consumption or disposition, consumers may feel some uncertainty in regards to the decision made, generating in some cases regret. Post-decision dissonance (also known as cognitive dissonance) is the term used to describe feelings of anxiety that occur in the post purchase stage; and refers to the consumer's uneasy feelings or concerns as to whether or not the correct decision was made at purchase. Some consumers, for instance, may regret that they did not purchase one of the other brands they were considering. This type of anxiety can affect consumers' subsequent behaviour.

1.4 E-retailing:

Definition of Retailing: The activities involved in the selling of goods to ultimate consumers for personal or household consumption

Definition of e retailing: Electronic retailing is the sale of goods and services through the internet. Electronic retailing, or e-tailing, can include business-to- business (B2B) and business to consumer(B2C) sale of products and services.

For the purpose of this research work only sale of products by e- retailers has been considered and service providing electronic websites are excluded.

E-Retailing in India:

Over the last two decades, rising internet and mobile phone penetration has changed the way we communicate and do business. E-commerce is relatively a novel concept. It is, at present, heavily leaning on the internet and mobile phone revolution to fundamentally alter the way businesses reach their customers. While in countries such as the US and China, e-commerce has taken significant strides to achieve sales of over 150 billion USD in revenue, the industry in India is, still at its infancy. However over the past few years, the sector has grown by almost 35% CAGR from 3.8 billion USD in 2009 to 12.6 billion USD in 2013. Industry studies indicate that online travel dominates the e-commerce industry with an estimated 70% of the market share. However, e- retail in both its forms; online retail and market place, has become the fastest- growing segment, increasing its share from 10% in 2009 to 18% in 2013. Calculations based on industry benchmarks estimate that the number of parcel check-outs in e-commerce portals exceeded 100 million mark. However, this share represents a miniscule proportion (less than 1%) of India‘s total retail market, but is poised for continued growth in the coming years. If this robust growth continues over the next few years, the size of the e-retail industry is poised to be around 100 USD by 2017-2020. This growth is expected to be led by increased consumer-led purchases in durables and electronics, apparels and accessories, besides traditional products such as books and audio-visuals.

Growth of E-Retailing in India:

Online retail here refers to gross sales of electronics, fashion, books, furniture and home products, health and personal care products and groceries at e- commerce firms. Gross sales do not account for discounts, product returns and order cancellations.

The curious thing is that all the brokerages have cited the same factors, more or less, that will drive the growth of e-commerce in India. These are broadly: soaring sales of smartphones and mobile Internet connections, rising incomes, uninterrupted flow of capital, shortage of organized retail stores and improvement in e-commerce infrastructure such as logistics and payments.

But how fast will these factors combine to drive e-commerce in India? That‘s where the differences arise.

Fig 3: Estimates of market size of online retail by 2020 by brokerages and consultancy firms

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Companies/So-what-is-the-state-of-Indias- online-retail-market-anyway.html( 7 Jan 2017)

There is difference between the most bullish estimate of the e-commerce market in India and the most conservative.

One extreme is Morgan Stanley, which has estimated that e-commerce sales in India will soar to nearly $120 billion by 2020; UBS Group AG is at the other end of the spectrum, predicting that online retail will rise only to $48-60 billion by that year. A look at the estimates by brokerages and consultancy firms of

India‘s e-commerce market size reveals a wide gap in expectations. Apart from Morgan Stanley and UBS, Mintlooked at estimates by three other firms: RedSeer Consulting—$80-100 billion; Goldman Sachs—$68.8 billion; Google- AT Kearney—$60 billion.

Morgan Stanley believes India will see a similar kind of growth in online retail that China has seen over the past few years. The securities house said that India will have an Internet penetration rate of 59% by 2020, a number China may reach in 2018.

Electronics and fashion have emerged as large categories in China. Online penetration in these categories increased from less than 6% in 2010 to 30% in 2013 in China. In India, online penetration was 3-5% in these two categories in 2014; however, it is expected the growth trajectory of India to mirror that of China. According to Feb report of Morgan Stanley Online penetration in 2020 should go to 25-30% for these categories, resulting in an online market of $88.5 billion combined.

UBS, on the other hand, said India will not mirror China‘s growth levels. According to UBS the forecast e-tail market size remains the key variable for e-commerce valuations. The discussions with industry participants and investors suggest that there is a wide range of estimates for market size, implying very different growth rates. The robustness of some of these estimates leaves a lot to be desired. For example, a common view is overlaying China‘s growth trajectory onto India to arrive at India‘s market size based on the comparable expected Internet penetration trajectory. According to UBS 2015 report this can be considered flawed, given different income levels and consumption trends in India.

Commodity distributions in e-tailing:

As per the report of Internet and Mobile Association of India research, electronics and apparels constitute the biggest share in e-retailing industry in India (34% and 30% respectively)

Fig 4: Commodity distribution in E-retailing

healthcare, 3% Sales home and furnishing, 6% baby products, 2%

beauty and personal, 10% baby products electronics apparels and accessories electronics, 34% books, 15% books beauty and personal home and furnishing apparels and healthcare accessories, 30%

Source: Internet and Mobile Association of India research (2015)[extracted on 20 Nov 2016]

As per a survey by BUSINESS STANDARD the top E-tailers of 2014 is Amazon. in followed by Flipkart. Amazon.in beat indigenous e-retailer Flipkart to become the best e-commerce website in India, according to People‘s Choice Survey conducted by cash back and coupons site CashKaro.com. Snapdeal ranked third in the list, followed by Myntra, Jabong and Shopclues, according to the survey that covered 2000 online shoppers

The People‘s Choice Survey is an annual report by CashKaro.com, which identifies key trends in online shopping in India. The pan-India survey got responses from metros as well as Tier-I, -II and III cities. As many as 65 per cent respondents in the survey were male, in the age group of 18 to 30 years.

Online shoppers favoured one website over another on the basis of the category that they were looking to make purchases in. While Flipkart emerged as the best platform to buy mobile phones and accessories, Amazon.in was the favourite for buying laptops and electronics. For fashion and accessories, buyers took to Myntra and Jabong, the survey showed. In the babycare

17 segment, Firstcry was the choice of a majority of buyers, and for home decore it was FabFurnish.

The increasing competition and challenges of changing business scenario have prompted the e-retailers to adopt some radical marketing practices in order to attract the customers. As there are several players in the field consumer has many options so it is of great significance to make him visit the website.

Chapter-2

Literature Review

The basic essence of this research work is to study the impact of social media marketing on buying behavior of online shoppers. It is of vital importance to study and analyse the fact that social media can play a significant role in shaping consumer perceptions and hence ultimately influencing the buying decision process of consumer. In order to have a thorough understanding of the work done in this field the research work of various Indian and international scholars and writers has been studied and reviewed.

1. Tim Finin, Anupam Joshi, Pranam Kolari, Akshay Java, Anubhav Kale, and Amit Karandikar (2008) in their study ―The information ecology of social media and online communities‖ explained that Work on building systems that would help in recognizing the spam blogs, finding opinion on topics, identifying communities of interest, deriving trust relationships and detecting influential bloggers with the help of models of blogosphere . Social media systems such as photo- and link-sharing sites like YouTube etc., weblogs, online forums are estimated to generate one third of the new web contents. One prominent feature that distinguishes the ―web 2.0‖ sites from the other web pages is that they are interlinked with other forms of network data. Their standard hyperlinks are enriched by social networks, comments, trackbacks, advertisement, tags, resource description framework (RDF) data and metadata. The writers conclude by stating that as the internet evolves, it changes the way in which the people interact with it as content providers or content consumers and the results will be more interesting mixture of underlying networks - network of individuals, groups, opinions, beliefs, documents, advertisements and scams. These interwoven networks will pose new opportunities and challenges for extracting information and knowledge from them.

2. Yin, Sara (2008) in her research paper How Social Media and PR Connect, writes that with the emergence of Social Media, the whole

19 communications landscape has transformed and the mass mobilizing power of Social Media is tremendous. People think that Social Media is a threat to traditional PR and mainstream media, however Social media complements traditional PR and traditional PR will exist as an important component of any successful business. The PR and advertising agencies are all undergoing a change and are trying to evolve their strategy, physical structure and business models to be in tune with social media.

3. Irene, FalsePollach ( 2008) in their study on Media Richness in Online Consumer Interactions : An Exploratory Study of Consumer-Opinion Web Sites have exclusively discussed on Consumer Opinion websites which provide opportunities to people to share their opinions or views about a product or service, read others opinions and also interact with other consumers. The writers have identified three major challenges which the consumer opinion websites face and they are i) quality of contributions ii) motivating users to participate iii) earning reader‘s trust. The main objective of this article is to find out ways by which the quality of the contents of these websites is enhanced so that it becomes a useful source of information for the consumers as well as the companies. The conclusions drawn from the study show that the consumer opinion websites are more influential and provide more valuable information when they separate the complex task of information search and dissemination from the simple task of social interaction, and support each task with appropriate levels of richness. The writers conclude that consumers should consider both positive and negative points about a product or service before stating their opinion.

4. The future possibility and the prospects of connecting consumer electronics to the web through open API‘s has been endeavored by the writers Mariana Baca and Henry Holtzman (2008) in their research work ―Television meets Facebook : Social Networks through Consumer Electronics‖. The project consists of an IP enabled digital video recorder in the form of advance cable television set-top box connected to Facebook social network. The objective of this project are : a. How can the omnipresent consumer electronics work together in a simple way, b. How can the data available on social networking

20 application diffuse in useful ways into the participant‘s real lives and c. How can these systems accomplish these tasks seamlessly without adding time or complexity to the user‘s experience. The results of this project are the user can now watch on his TV, the media that his friends enjoy, as well as his own explicitly requested recordings, through the system of ratings the user can use her DVR‘s enhanced interface to post back on social network what shows have been liked by them. The user‘s profile box in Facebook is going to be the main tool for sharing the user‘s upcoming viewing schedule. The information on their profile affects their viewing habits, therefore users will be more conscious with whom they add in their friend network and what information they provide through their profiles. The integration of consumer electronics and social networking is expected to benefit the content producers and distributors through the automation of word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendation. This project is also expected to help the users in finding the appealing new content faster than they would otherwise, help users in sharing contents and experiences more easily and will help the content distributors track content distribution in a social network directly into consumer electronics.

5. W. Glynn Mangold and David J. Faulds (2009) in Social Media : The new hybrid element of the promotion mix, argues that Social Media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a non-traditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The writers feel that Social Media being a hybrid element of the promotional mix, should be incorporated as an integral part of the company‘s Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). When Procter and Gamble (P&G) or General Electric (GE) entered the arena of Social Media, they carefully framed their communications with the market place in order to consistently reflect their organizational values and they acknowledge the value of incorporating Social Media into their IMC strategies and promotional efforts. The second promotion related role of Social media is : customers can use Social Media to communicate with one another. The organization cannot control the content, timing, and frequency of the social media based conversations occurring between consumers. This

21 stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm where organizations have a high degree of control over the customer‘s communication. The Social Media has profoundly affected all aspects of consumer behaviour, and has bestowed consumers with power they have not previously experienced in the marketplace

6. The importance of Social media platform as a crucial tool for strategic marketing has been discussed by Efthymios Constantinides, Carlota Lorenzo Romero and Miguel A. Gomez Boria (2009) in their research study ―Social Media : A New Frontier for Retailers?‖ This study has proposed a number of new strategies for retailers implementing which will not only help the retailers to survive, but create a competitive advantage and flourish in the new environment.

7. The rising significance of Virtual social worlds and how business can use their potentials has been discussed by Andreas Kaplan and Michael Heinlein (2009) in their research work ―The fairyland of Second Life : Virtual social worlds and how to use them‖. At the beginning this study the authors have discussed about the evolution of virtual social worlds and its history. Followed by how it fits in our time and lastly how they are different from other social media, such as content communities (e.g. YouTube), social networking sites and blogs (e.g. Facebook), collaborative projects (e.g. Wikipedia) and virtual game worlds. This study has thrown light on how businesses can make use of these virtual social worlds in the field of advertising and communication, virtual product sales (v-Commerce), human resource, marketing research and internal process management. Along with it this study has also discussed increasing linkages between the real and the virtual worlds, enforcement of law and order and transformation of virtual social business as business hubs or centres of the future.

8. Smith, Nicola (2009) in their research paper ―Consumer electronics vertical Focus: The heights of invention‖ has stated that consumer electronics sector has been the first sector in experimenting and trying out the different techniques of digital marketing. The various product promotional

22 campaigns taken up on the Social Media by the digital pioneers like Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Panasonic and the overwhelming responses they received online form a part of this paper. It has been put forth by the writers that the key challenge faced by the consumer electronics brands has been to effectively communicate the complexity of their products to a wide audience and through digital marketing they have overcome this challenge and therefore they are turning to digital marketing. Online video and Social Media (Social media includes Consumer reviews, online communities and forums) have been cited as the greatest opportunities by the consumer electronics brands. The brands can directly open a dialogue with the consumer, understand the consumer‘s needs, answer their questions, get feedback and have a friendly engagement with the consumer; all because of Social Media.

9. Jiyoung Cha (2009) in research work ―Shopping on Social networking websites ; Attitudes toward real versus virtual items‖ explored factors affecting the shopping attitude on social networking site. The study is based on two types of products which are present on social networking sites: Real products and Virtual products. The study reveals that usefulness, age, ease of use, security and fit play a significant role in determining the attitude for shopping real products. On the other hand gender, social networking site experience, ease of use and fit influence the attitudes for shopping virtual products.

10.Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) in their article “Social media: back to the roots and back to the future” published in emraldinsight.com define social media as ―a group of Internet based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the creation and exchange of user generated content.‖ According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) web 2.0 is a platform where content is continuously altered by all operators in a sharing and collaborative way. Web 2.0 is a web based technology which helps to create highly interactive platforms through which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss and modify user – generated content. Social media are the websites which are build upon the technological foundations of web 2.0 that help a user to create user generated

23 contents that can be shared. This technology allows a user to create and publish the content on the social media networks. This information can be shared with other members of the social media website, who are connected with the user. This process is interactive where other members can also respond in different ways.

11. Tom Smith (2010) in The social media revolution, says Social Media has changed the manner in which the communication between the organizations and the customers were taking place; it has changed from talking through mass media to listening and conversing through social media. Since the consumer online is a commentator, reviewer and publisher, all the organizations have to stop talking and start listening to how they are perceived online. Listening is just the start, after listening, actively participating in the discussions with the consumers and engaging them is crucial. This engagement with the consumers online will be the key way for building long-term advocates of the brand, who not only purchase their products but also recommend them on and offline. The writer then opines that there is a huge opportunity for research, as the need for research outputs and knowledge will shape the consumer opinion. Research and research companies have a great scope for research through Social Media and the research companies that evolve with Social Media can increasingly prosper. Research Companies can evolve in various ways : Build community : Consumers want to share views and opinion and communities should grab this opportunity and tap in. This means providing constant surveys, message boards, listening permanently and not occasionally, and making the conversation two-way by sharing results back with them. Work with brands to build research communities: Research agencies and companies should work together and two-way research oriented portals should be implemented by organisations. Research agencies should constantly and carefully monitor the consumer‘s conversations and help the organizations with the latest updates.

Widgitise : widgets or mini applications allow you to place your site or content in an external web environment. These offer a new way of building and maintaining research communities and distributing surveys. Embrace social media platforms as research platforms: Sharing information, content, opinions through wikis, network sites, blogs, video sites, generates a large amount of data which can be very helpful for research. Therefore the social media platforms should be used as research platforms.

13. Wright, Elizabeth; Khanfar, Nile M (Nov. 2010) in ―The lasting effects of Social Media Trends on Advertising‖ has explored that there is no use investing millions in traditional methods of advertising because people find new ways to block or get away from these advertisements. The key is to target the right people with the right messages. In order to do this, the marketers should focus on Connectors(are the ones that move and steer people into directions and avenues of interest to them) , Mavens(are the ones who want to know the best deals and tell everyone about it) and salespeople(who have the ability to convince and sell new ideas). The connectors, mavens and salespeople have the ability to give a high return on investment, since by targeting them the organization can acquire high sales just by targeting a small group of people. Thus targeting the right people not only brings down the organization‘s advertising expenses but also drastically improves their marketing productivity. Social Media makes it very easy for any organization to connect with these connectors, mavens and salespeople. It is very important to use holistic, comprehensive relationship marketing strategy to target these people, since they are key drivers in influencing the consumers buying decision.

14. Ian McCarthy and Kietzmann et al(2011) in ―Understanding the Social Media Ecology: A Honeycomb Framework‖ identifies seven functional blocks of social media websites: identity, conversation, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation and groups.

Each block allows us to understand the structure of the social media site based on the facilities it provides to its users. This study attempts to

25 understand the functions of the social media websites and their role in social media marketing. These building blocks are not mutually exclusive and also they are not part of every social media site. These building blocks are the constructs which helps us to understand how different levels of social media functionality can be configured.

Fig 5: Honey comb model of consumer behaviour

Source: https://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2013(extracted on 15 Oct 2016)

Identity The identity dimension is about the extent to which individuals or organizations make their identity public by disclosing personal or corporate information (i.e. name, age, gender, profession, location) in a social media setting. Individuals also tend to reveal other information – consciously or unconsciously – about themselves that makes them portrayed in certain ways through ‗self-disclosure„of subjective information such as thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes.

Conversation The conversations dimension of the Honeycomb Model is about the extent to which each individual communicate with one another in a social media setting. Most social media sites„primarily purpose is to facilitate conversation among individuals and interest groups.

Sharing The sharing dimension is about the extent to which an individual ex- changes, distributes and receives content in a social media setting. As the term social implies, exchange between individuals is a crucial functionality on social media sites. At the end of the day, social media is about people sharing their identities and lives by sharing relevant content (i.e. groups, text, videos, pictures, audio, links) .

Presence The presence dimension is about the extent to which an individual can know whether his/her peers are available online. Presence dimension includes information as to where each-individual-in-one„s-network is in the virtual world and/or in the real world. In a way presence dimension functions as a bridge that connects the real and the virtual realities.

Relationships The relationships dimension is about the extent to which each individual can be related to other individuals in a social media setting. The word relate„ is used to indicate the type of association formed between individuals (i.e. befriending, joining groups, co-presence on a social media site) which in turn may lead to conversation and shares.

Reputation The reputation dimension is about the extent to which each individual is able to identify ones relative position (including one„s own position) in the society in a social media setting. In social media, reputation is not something granted to people through their disclosed identities but it is something that can be earned through shared content, expressed thoughts, likes and dislikes. The same is true for organizations seeking to build or strengthen their reputation through implementing social media strategies.

Groups The Groups dimension is about the extent to which each individual can form communities and sub-communities in a social media setting.

15. Chris Murdough (2011)in “A Social Media Mindset ―said Synthesizing all three of performance categories i.e. Reach, Discussions and Outcomes, helped clarify comprehensively what was going on in the social Web for brands and best advise them how they can leverage the audience in this space.

16.Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) must be used in social marketing is proposed by Jacinta Hawkins, Sandy Bulmer and Lynne Eagle (2011) in their research work ―Evidence of IMC in social marketing‖. This research study has given evidence of IMC being successfully incorporated in the communication of school-based health promotion activities within schools that promotes health. The findings of the research reveals that IMC principles are successfully communicated and forms part of the HPS(health promoting school) policy of promoting health. This research throws light on how IMC can and should be used in social marketing. This research has provided insights for social marketing practitioners to improvise on the communication efforts.

17. Social Media Explained: Untangling the World's Most Misunderstood Business Trend by Mark W. Schaefer (Publisher: Lightning Source Inc (1 September 2011)"Social Media Explained" explores the fundamental strategies and answers the questions every business professional needs to answer before diving into a social media initiative! This the must-have guide for understanding the sociological and psychological drivers that make social media marketing work.

18. Leboff (2011) in Sticky Marketing observed, the increasing use of internet has put the Consumer in the Driver‘s Seat. Exponential growth in Internet usage by Individual and businesses alike has made competition all the fiercer in many sectors. Online presence is made available at little or no cost, thus giving a Level Playing Field to the masses with at least in the domain of marketing. Developing new relationship and associations with customers is no longer a choice but a compulsion. Sharing information about the organization and its products has now changed to Online Discussions. These obviously are in stark contrast with traditional, hardsell forms of marketing.

Leboff said, that Return on Investment is now measured not in traditional sales terms, but in terms of ―Return On Engagement‖. Measurement of engagement or emotional investment in the brand, like active participation on

28 the company website or favorable references to it in blog posts are the key points that make a deference to increase in business. The benefits due to these radical changes include individual loyalty, attracting additional followers who become fans and customers. Even the smallest companies now have a major presence on Social Media like Facebook or a LinkedIn page in which they interact directly with customers and respond to queries or requests for assistance.

19. (Kietzmann et al., (2011):in ―Social media? Get serious! Understanding the functional building blocks of social media‖ stated that Media sharing sites (i.e. YouTube, Picassa and Flickr) or blogging platforms (i.e. blogspot, wordpress) are also members of the ecosystem called social media. Social media has equipped the organization to establish a direct relationship with the consumers. Both of the organizations and consumers are free to generate content on the web pages, which further leads to conversations and discussion. Organization on one end are provided with an opportunity to share their information with a large base of customers and on the other end consumers are also free to publish any content whether positive or negative regarding the information 20. Aberdeen et al, (2011) Fans, Friends, and Followers: Social Media in the Retailers' Marketing Mix [The Journal of Applied Business and Economics; Thunder Bay12.3 (Jul 2011): 61-68.]: has taken a retailers perspective, saying it is the dynamic exchange of information between retailer and consumer via an online community destination such as Company Blog, Online forum, Website or any other type of social media outlet or tool. This dynamic content included, but was not limited to Blogs, Micro Blogs – Twitter, Product commenting, Social Networks – Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Video – YouTube, Presentation or Document Sharing – Slide Share, Social Bookmarking, Podcasting Aberdeen expressed this important issue by saying:

 There was a direct link between social media and increased customer loyalty and it was a viable means of Communication and Customer Experience. Businesses who sought to keep pace with the

exponentially expanding influence of the Customer Voice could not afford to avoid this channel opportunity any longer.  Due to lingering recession, Customer Advocacy was pivotal for the longevity of any company, and there was no better way of building brand advocacy than through social media. Social Media has radically amplified the Word of Mouth, enabling the Good, Bad and Ugliest of Shopping Experiences to go viral in the blink of an eye. Marketing Departments were helped by Social Media Insights with respect to the following:  Focus on Target Customers  Growth of Customer Database  Monitor Customer Sentiments.  Setting up Micro-sites that engage Shoppers Feedback, Delivering Promotions or Driving Shoppers back into stores, Social Media had become a Mission Critical Marketing Tool that if used correctly can help chains build Brand Advocates.

21. A study has been conducted on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Orkut by authors P. Sri Jothi, M. Neelamalar and R. Shakthi Prasad (March 2011) in their research paper ―Analysis of social networking strategy in developing brand communication‖, with the primary objective of determining the effectiveness of brand communication strategy in advertising products and promoting brands on social networking sites. The various reasons for social media being a widely used platform, for advertising compared to the other traditional advertising mediums have been discussed. The various ways that are being provided by social media platform for its users to communicate with each other and interact with the brand are discussed like chat, messaging, video, email, voice chat, file-sharing, blogging and discussion groups. According to the writers views, the marketing communications are becoming personal, interesting, interactive and social. Findings of the study suggest that social media advertising has its impact on 70% of the users and half of them access these ads i.e. games, quiz, events etc. It was found that the interaction is more in the display banner

30 advertisements in Face book and Orkut. Every Social networking site has a unique communication strategy and user interaction. Face book promote and allows user interactions, Twitter feeds posts relating the brand and Orkut promote through click ads and promotional brand pages. Face shows accessibility because of its huge popularity and Twitter gives more importance to the text. The writers concluded by stating that Social networking sites have the scope to grow big for highly targeted marketing and advertising. Social networking sites presents enormous opportunities to build the brands and have become a branding hub.

22. O‘Brien, Clodagh (2011) in their research paper ―The emergence of the social media empowered consumer‖ has thrown a light upon the various platforms that has an impact on traditional relationship marketing concepts and how this has resulted in raising consumer expectations of the conventional business. This study also talks about areas like word of mouth and consumer empowerment and emphasizes the areas of potential development in theory and practice as a result of social media empowerment. The author in this study has expressed his views about social media and CRM. He says that Social media has completely changed the manner in which communication takes place thereby giving a new dynamics to the human relationships. The organizations which are accepting social media must also accept that they are losing the element of control to the consumers. For most of the businesses social media has gained a lot of importance in establishing their web presence overtaking the company website and email communication program. This has completely changed the manner in which the organizations are interacting with their consumers and how they are implementing the customer relationship management strategies. The main difference between the traditional CRM and social CRM is that the social CRM is more customer oriented and it involves customers proactively. The author also talks about word of mouth marketing that empowers the organization and not the consumer.

23. An attempt is being made to examine how social relationship factors relate with eWOM being transmitted via social networking sites by Shu-Chuan Chu,

Yoojung Kim(2011) in their study ―Determinants of consumer engagement in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in social networking sites‖. As more and more marketers incorporates Social media in their promotional activities, there is a need to investigate the determinants that impact the consumers engagement in eWOM via social networks. eWOM is based on three aspects : opinion seeking behaviour, opinion giving behaviour and opinion passing behaviour. Opnion seekers depend on others advice to make purchase decision. Opinion givers exert a great influence on others opinions. Opinion passers helps in the flow of information. Literature review has revealed four social relationship variables - tie strength, homophily, trust and interpersonal influence. Interpersonal influence is further divided into normative influence and informational influence. The results indicate that tie strength, trust, normative and informational influence had a positive relationship with all types of eWOM behaviours. However homophily had a negative relationship with the eWOM behaviour.

24. Botha. E., Farshid, M., Pitt, L. (2011) identified Tools for collecting brand visibility information of brands present over social media in their research paper ―How Sociable? An exploratory study of university brand visibility in social media‖. Brands are using Social Media to acquire new customers and to retain the existing ones. Brands need to acquire information about their visibility on these social networking sites, as compared to the visibility of their competitors. This is an exploratory study that has been conducted on the South African University brands. This study has identified, positioning of the brands over social media and the strategies followed by them to make themselves visible to the audience, as the tools for knowing the visibility of the brands. The findings of the study revealed that the South African University brands do not have a distinct position over social media, nor do they have effective strategies to engage their stakeholders. The writers concluded that the institutions should have a fair attitude towards Social media, since social media is currently governing the internet and the media. The people who are managing these brands can see this as an opportunity to make the brand presence prominent.

25. Brian Massey(2012) in his book ―Your Customer Creation Equation‖, explains the how and why of conversions and measurement. It‘s a concise, clear-sighted overview of visitors and actions. Brian covers social media in context of conversation. He reminds that conversion does not necessarily lead to action. So he encourages to take a practical approach to social media by focusing either on conversation or content, depending on business.

There are different types of websites with different types of visitors. Each type has its own ―formula.‖ The key to optimizing conversion rate is experimentation. Brian even calls himself a ―Conversion Scientist.‖ He‘s clearly a strong advocate of testing.

By walking the reader through five online formulas-aka "customer creation equations"-he shows you how to determine the best formula your own particular business structure and how to optimize it for stellar results.

Key to this process is setting up a "digital conversion lab," and Brian shows you how. Jam-packed with easy-to-understand equations for things like increasing your conversion rate and decreasing your abandonment rate-as well as practical strategies for attracting prospects, turning buyers into triers, and morphing buyers into loyal brand advocates-this book will enable anyone to stop hoping for success and start enjoying higher profits. The Advanced Curriculum in Visitor Studies gives readers additional guidance on how to really understand their targets and customers-an understanding that is at the heart of all successful websites, and businesses, everywhere.

26. ―Digital Leader‖ by Erik Qualman(2012): In this book Qualman explains how to take full advantage of everything the digital age has to offer, while avoiding common pitfalls that can damage your "digital legacy."

Erik Qualman explains what modern leadership means and describes how to be an effective leader in the digital world. In order to succeed, you need to adjust your leadership skills to adapt to today's digitally open world--and you need to start today. Qualman breaks the process down into five powerful truths you can use to establish your leadership "stamp":

Simple: success is the result of simplification and focus

True: be true to your passion

Act: nothing happens without action--take the first step

Map: goals and visions are needed to get where you want to be

People: success doesn't happen alone

Basing his conclusions on a wide range of research and resources, Qualman provides an abundance of real-world examples and tips to help you create a path to success while leading others to achieve their best.

27. Angella J. Kim, Eunju Ko(2012): ―Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity- An empirical study of luxury fashion brand‖: In light of a growing interest in the use of social media marketing (SMM) among luxury fashion brands, this study set out to identify attributes of SMM activities and examine the relationships among those perceived activities, value equity, relationship equity, brand equity, customer equity, and purchase intention through a structural equation model. Five constructs of perceived SSM activities of luxury fashion brands are entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization, and word of mouth. Their effects on value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity are significantly positive. For the relationship between customer equity drivers and customer equity, brand equity has significant negative effect on customer equity while value equity and relationship equity show no significant effect. As for purchase intention, value equity and relationship equity had significant positive effects, while relationship equity had no significant influence. Finally, the relationship between purchase intention and customer equity has significance. The findings of this study can enable luxury brands to forecast the future purchasing behavior of their customers more accurately and provide a guide to managing their assets and marketing activities as well.

28. Manish Parihar (2012)in “Customer Relationship Management” he mentioned that Companies of contemporary times have been realizing the insight to create communities around their products or offerings, invite and encourage members to join them, and then convert them into loyal customers

34 and advocates. Business owners had been increasingly interested in using social media to optimize their customer experience management activities because they knew social media was changing the Customer Relationship Management game.

29. Abu Bashar, Irshad Ahmad, Mohammad Wasiq In Their Research Paper ―Effectiveness Of Social Media As A Marketing Tool: An Empirical Study‖(2012) In an era where technology prevails, entrepreneurs as well as marketers see the need to keep up with the fast pace of change or risk being outdated. It is practically impossible to design a marketing strategy without considering social networks. Social media had become really important gradient in today‘s marketing mix in general and in promotion mix in particular. Adapting some form of marketing online through social media is a key node for all businesses, especially in an industry where trends constantly change such as fashion and handicrafts. The paper carries out empirical research to understand the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool and an effort has been made to analyze the extent social media helps consumers in buying decision making. In addition strategies have been suggested for maximizing the effectiveness. Various statistical tests have been applied to support the research hypothesis. business today is being transformed from a transactional relationship to a social relationship. It is now more critical than ever that successful businesses use Engagement Marketing principles to plan for successfully engaging their prospects and customers before, during and after their purchase cycle, and that the basis for this engagement is high-quality and relevant information. Information which are demanded by target market at a time and place of their choice (24/7 and 365 days/year).Marketer‘s job is to provide this information in such a manner that you are viewed in a positive light, create a positive brand and product reputation. The medium is growing very fast and holds huge potential but is still in its nascent stage in India. Therefore, it is time for the companies to make effective strategies and execute them to win larger share of business through this revolutionary medium and become the innovative firm of coming future.

30. The characteristics of online marketing strategies used by E- entrepreneurs have been explored by S. Vivin. Richard, Ms. Sri. Jothi (Aug. 2012) in the research study ― A study on online marketing strategies used by E-Entrepreneurs in India‖. The study has analysed E- Entrepreneurs like www. Amazon.com, www. Flipkart.com, www. Naptool.com etc. for the purpose of studying the nature and extent of marketing strategies used by successful online Entrepreneurs. SNSs apart from being a fantastic medium of communication and interaction, keeps the customers informed of the consumer market as well. Through this paper the writers have voiced their view that there is a need to analyze and research the needs of the customers who come online to fulfill their requirements. Internet has given an opportunity to entrepreneurs to market their products and services across the globe and has opened the doors of such a gigantic market, that their sales force cannot even think of identifying. The online companies can engage in online promotional activities through effective online marketing strategies to enhance their offerings in the online markets. Advertising on the internet not only provides the information about the offerings but it also encourages innovation. The study concluded by revealing the results which stated that Social media marketing is one of the best online marketing strategies that has been used by the E-Entrepreneurs. The results also revealed that the International players like e.Bay.com, Amazon.com are well ahead in customer relationship building and management and in the online marketing strategies. Indian brands are identifying the strategies which the international websites use to improve the website and are trying to build their brand identity.

31. ―Social media marketing: strategies & its impact‖ by Vivek Bajpai Sanjay Pandey, Shweta Shriwas: Social platforms each have an ecosystem of their own. Creating a basic social media presence is easy enough, getting your community to actually do something is more difficult. Make sure your site is included in local business directories in order to help ensure that consumers find you when they need you. Customizing messages across sites help the message spread but it keeps users from receiving multiple identical communications. By giving exclusive coupons to your social community, you‘re rewarding and reminding them that you are not only a brand to engage

36 with, but also to buy from. Taking advantage of these strategies can help you build your community, make your marketing more effective, and incentivize buying.

32. Logan, Kelty; Bright, Laura F; Gangadharbatla, Harsha (2012) in paper Facebook versus television : advertising value perceptions among females the writers compared the perceptions of female students regarding value of advertising on social network sites and value of advertising on television. Advertising trustworthiness-The study shows that consumers have become more concerned about the factualness or trustworthiness of advertising content. It was found out that consumer-generated product recommendations are more recommended than marketer-generated product recommendations. Involvement-SNSs provide an involving environment for advertisers. The users of Social networking sites involve in brand related activities and are therefore more engaged than consumers who simply read, listen or watch advertisements about a brand. Advertising effectiveness measures-It was found out that the advertisements having an element of entertainment and information in them are more accepted advertisements on SNSs. The results indicated that the young adults crowd(19-24) are more inclined towards informativeness than entertainment and young female participants are more engaged by entertaining advertisements on SNSs. Therefore it was concluded that informativeness and entertainment play a significant role in assessing advertising value whereas irritation did not play a significant role in assessing the advertising value.

33. ―Online Customer Experience in e-Retailing: An empirical model of Antecedents and Outcomes‖ by Susan Rose, Moira Clark Phillip Samouel, Neil Hair(2012) : The theoretical understanding of online shopping behavior has received much attention. Less focus has been given to the formation of the customer experience (CE) that results from online shopper interactions with e-retailers. This study develops and empirically tests a model of the relationship between antecedents and outcomes of online customer experience (OCE) within Internet shopping websites using an international sample. The study identifies and provides operational measures of these

37 variables plus the cognitive and affective components of OCE. The paper makes contributions towards new knowledge and understanding of how e- retailers can provide effective online experiences for customers.

► The empirical study tests and finds support for a comprehensive model of online customer experience (OCE). ► OCE is composed of two experiential states: cognitive (CES) and affective (AES). ► Perceived Control is a mediator between three antecedents: Connectedness, Customization, Ease of Use and AES. ► Online customer satisfaction is a mediator between CES, AES and Repurchase Intention. ► Online customer satisfaction has both a direct and indirect relationship with Repurchase Intention via Online Trust.

34. Hyoungkoo Khang, Eyun-Jung Ki, Lan Ye, Social Media Research in Advertising, Communication, Marketing, and Public Relations, 1997– 2010, published in 2012 Drawing upon the social media phenomena in both practical and academic arenas, this study explored patterns and trends of social media research over the past fourteen years across four disciplines. Findings exhibit a definite increasing number of social-media-related studies. This indicates that social media have gained incremental attention among scholars, and who have, in turn, been responding and keeping pace with the increased usage and impact of this new medium. The authors suggest that future scholarly endeavors emphasize prospective aspects of social media, foreseeing applications and technological progress and elaborating theory.

35. Burson and Marsteller study on ‗Global Social Media Checkup 2012‘ has concluded that the fortune Global 100 brands have active presence on social media. 67 % of the Brands have twitter accounts while 57% have Facebook and remains have on Youtube, Google+, Pinterest and etc.

36. The social media presence and social media metrics of Indian IT companies namely Infosys, Wipro, TCS and HCL has been discussed by Ramulu Bhukya (2012) in the research paper ― Presence of Indian Big IT Brands on Social Media : an Empirical Study‖. The data for this study has been collected from the respective brand‘s social media websites and analyzed on a 5 point scale. The research findings shows that HCL and

Infosys have high scores of 3.75 points for their social media presence and have their brand accounts on 7 social network sites each. Next with score of 1.75 and presence on 7 SNS is Wipro followed by TCS with score of 1.25 and social media presence on 6 SNS. de Vries et.al. (2012) conducted a study on 355 brand posts from 11 international brands spread across six categories of products and the result shows that positioning the brand post on top of the brand fan page helps in increasing and enhancing the popularity of the brand post. The author opines that the SNS are free to join because if they are not free they will not expand and earn money from the brand or customer driven advertisements. According to the Social Media Benchmark survey conducted by http://business.com, 2948 businesses were undergoing the process of decentralization of marketing plan. Among them 1,197 maintained a company profile on one or more SNSs, 80% maintained a presence on Facebook while 56% maintained an account on Twitter. Social media has opened the doors of global markets and Infosys, Wipro, HCL and TCS are now preparing to compete with the global biggies. Already Indian companies have labour availability at a comparatively much lower costs as compared to the global companies which is one advantage that the Indian companies have in their favour. However value created in the fields of brand, intellectual property will take these Indian companies to new heights. Accordingly these tech companies are working aggressively over budgets for marketing globally, enhancing global positioning and brand valuations.

37. Anil Bhatt (May 2012) in his paper on Blog Popularity and Activity on Social Media: an Exploratory Research has made an attempt to find out the impact of some social media website‘s popularity on ROI. Social media provides a global opportunity for brands to use them as an effective channel for marketing of products and services. However the effectiveness of any marketing channel is largely dependent on a very important entity the ROI. ROI is something that most marketers look at when one has to determine the effectiveness of any marketing channel. The study therefore examined ROI for weblogs and how their promotions through two highly popular social networking sites, namely Facebook and Twitter affects their popularity and in turn increases their revenue through advertisements. Page views is a direct

39 measure of the traffic a particular blog has and therefore a correlation between page views and Facebook fans and twitter fans was established to understand the effect of promotion of brands through social media. The findings of the study revealed a positive correlation across all blog categories and hence it was concluded that a positive change in Facebook followers and Twitter followers increases the number of page views. It was also found that the page views increased with the increase in time due to an increase in fans or followers.

38. Shahir Bhatt and Amola Bhatt (2012) in their research paper Factors influencing Online Shopping: An Empirical Study in Ahmedabad writes about the factors which influence the perceptions of consumers regarding online shopping. The study has revealed three important influencing factors:  attractiveness of website,  service quality of websites  website security The paper has proved that that these factors are related to specific type of consumers classified as occasional, frequent and regular consumers. The study shows that the regular buyers are most influenced by the ease/attractiveness and service quality of website, whereas the occasional buyers value website security to a greater extent.

39. The potential of Social networking sites in the field of education have been explored by Afendi Hamat, Mohamed Amin Embi, Haslinda Abu Hassan (2012) in the research paper ―The Use of Social Networking Sites among Malaysian university students‖. SNSs are popular and very commonly used for interaction by the young adults; however there is very limited data available on the patterns of its use for the wider segment of the target population. The results show that the SNS has not penetrated. The study also shows that the respondents are found to spend more time on interacting and socializing through SNS than learning. It has come out from the studies that the respondents are using SNS for the purpose of informal learning activities and nearly half i.e. 50.3% use it to get in touch with the lecturers for informal learning purpose.

40. An effort has been made to know the awareness of social media with respect to business among teaching, non-teaching staff and students of a college by T. S. Venkateswaran, B. Sowmya, R. Arun (2012) in their research study ―Effective use of Social Websites towards business among academicians and students in Namakkal District‖. The research intends to investigate the following: 1. Knowledge of business through social websites. 2. Uses, impact and causes of social websites. 3. Rating the various activities in Social websites. 4. Impact of Social websites in future. The study lists the benefits of social websites for business like to create brand awareness, Utility of SNSs as a effective online reputation management tool, for the purpose of recruiting and to learn about new technologies and competitors. The results of the study reveals that most of professionals and students are aware about business taking place through social networking sites, however most of them are not using it for the business purpose. Most of the respondents are using SNSs for socializing. Therefore the writers think that the social websites need to grab the professionals and students from rural areas to concentrate on business through Social websites.

41. The impact of cultural orientation of American, Chinese and Turkish non- profit organization‘s behaviour and communication patterns in the social media space has been examined by Richard D. Waters & Kevin D. Lo (2012) in their research study ―Exploring the impact of Culture in Social Media Sphere : A content analysis of non-profit organizations use of facebook‖. A content analysis of 225 non-profit organization‘s Facebook profiles was carried out for the research purpose. Particularly the study has focused on the ways in which the organizations disclose information about themselves and about those who manage their Facebook presence, ways of promoting the organizational accomplishments and news, and engaging with the stakeholders in relation to their context, performance and collectivist/individualist natures, respectively. The findings of the study showed mixed support for the impact of traditional cultural expectations, thus

41 suggesting that global connectivity of social media may be contributing to blurred cultural boundaries in favor of virtual culture that promoted the global community.

42. The usage of social media among the destination marketing organizations (DMO) of the top 10 most visited countries by international tourists has been examined by Stephanie Hays, Stephen John Page & Dimitrios Buhalis (2012) in their research study ― Social Media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations‖. Social media are gaining more importance in the marketing strategies of DMOs as it helps in seeking greater value in the way marketing budgets are spent. Social media offers DMOs with global audience at limited costs. The writer has made an attempt to determine the impact and usage of social media marketing strategies and has developed a model of best practices for the national tourism organizations to learn from. The findings show that the social media usage among the top DMOs is still experimental and the strategies differ extensively.

43. Sunil Karve, Shilpa C. Shinde (March 2013) in their paper ―Effectiveness of Social Networking Sites (SNS)‖ have made an attempt to figure out the experiences of the internet users regarding social media and have also tried to find out the pattern of SNS usage of the consumers. The writers state that social media has become so much popular, that it has surpassed the popularity of email, to become number four after search, portals and PC software applications. The tremendous increase in the amount of time people are spending using these SNS have changed the way people spend their time online and this affects the way people behave, interact and share in their normal daily lives. This paper has tried to analyse the overall effectiveness.

44. Gitanjali Kalia(2013) in her research paper, A Research Paper on Social media: An Innovative Educational Tool: It undertakes to study the relevance and importance of social media which is an in-thing among the educational sector. In an era, where the glocal is the word to define common

42 platform for the people around the world to share and exchange their beliefs, culture, traditions, knowledge, views, etc. The study concludes that our education system needs change and social media should be widely utilized for the educational purposes. It is mainly used for the purpose of making presentations followed by assignment updates, better research and connectivity. ―Social Learning‖ tools is a phrase that reflects main goal of using social networking functionality in the education setting. One simple way to define a social networking platform might be, ―a tool that lets students, parents, and educators collaborate online‖. The innovative use of social media doesn‘t stop here; the students also use it for making blogs, making professional links, announcing and making class announcements, sharing information with students, parents and educators, etc.

45. Sinan Aral, Chrysanthos Dellarocas, David Godes, Introduction to the Special Issue(2013)—―Social Media and Business Transformation: A Framework for Research‖: Social media are fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, consume, and create. They represent one of the most transformative impacts of information technology on business, both within and outside firm boundaries. This special issue was designed to stimulate innovative investigations of the relationship between social media and business transformation. In this paper we outline a broad research agenda for understanding the relationships among social media, business, and society. We place the papers comprising the special issue within this research framework and identify areas where further research is needed. We hope that the flexible framework we outline will help guide future research and develop a cumulative research tradition in this area.

46. Ambrose Jagongo, Catherine Kinyua (2013) in their study The Social Media and Entrepreneurship Growth focused on the effect of social media on the growth of SMEs in Nairobi. The study established that social media tools offer greater market accessibility and CRM which in turn have a significant impact on the growth of SMEs. This study recommends that the policy makers should come up with favourable internet surfing rates and e- business policies to encourage the technological adoption that would grow the SME industry.

47. ―Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture‖, by Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford and Joshua Green(2013): Spreadable Media maps fundamental changes taking place in our contemporary media environment, a space where corporations no longer tightly control media distribution and many of us are directly involved in the circulation of content. It contrasts "stickiness"-aggregating attention in centralized places-with "spreadability"-dispersing content widely through both formal and informal networks, some approved, many unauthorized. Stickiness has been the measure of success in the broadcast era (and has been carried over to the online world), but "spreadability" describes the ways content travels through social media. Following up on the hugely influential Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, this book challenges some of the prevailing metaphors and frameworks used to describe contemporary media, from biological metaphors like "memes" and "viral" to the concept of "Web 2.0" and the popular notion of "influencers." Spreadable Media examines the nature of audience engagement, the environment of participation, the way appraisal creates value, and the transnational flows at the heart of these phenomena. It delineates the elements that make content more spreadable and highlights emerging media business models built for a world of participatory circulation. The book also explores the internal tensions companies face as they adapt to the new communication reality and argues for the need to shift from "hearing" to "listening" in corporate culture

48. Gary Vaynerchuk(2013) : Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World

Currently more than 500 million Tweets are composed each day on Twitter and 80 million photos are shared daily on Instagram. To add to it, more than 30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month. To say consumers are overloaded by information would be an understatement.

One of the easiest ways businesses can cut through the noise and deliver their message is through storytelling. But how do you effectively share your

44 story when there are so many social platforms to cover? That‘s what Gary Vaynerchuk‘s book aims to help you solve. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is a blueprint to social media marketing strategies that really works. When managers and marketers outline their social media strategies, they plan for the ―right hook‖—their next sale or campaign that‘s going to knock out the competition. Even companies committed to jabbing—patiently engaging with customers to build the relationships crucial to successful social media campaigns—want to land the punch that will take down their opponent or their customer‘s resistance in one blow. Right hooks convert traffic to sales and easily show results. Thanks to massive change and proliferation in social media platforms, the winning combination of jabs and right hooks is different now. Vaynerchuk shows that while communication is still key, context matters more than ever. It‘s not just about developing high-quality content, but developing high-quality content perfectly adapted to specific social media platforms and mobile devices—content tailor-made for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr.

49. Jeffrey Rohrs ―Audience: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers‖(2013): Without an audience, there‘s not much use for a social media strategy. In today‘s marketing age, your audience matters more than ever. Every business needs one to survive. It‘s how you discover and forge loyal relationships with customers. But in many cases, businesses treat their audiences like afterthoughts rather than assets.

Jeffrey Rohrs sets out to change this dynamic by challenging companies to focus their paid, owned and earned media to grow the size, engagement and value of their audiences long-term. Through research data and case studies, this book details how you can gain a competitive advantage and master proprietary audience development.

50. Garima Gupta (2013) in the research paper ―Assessing the Influence of Social Media on Consumer‘s Purchase Intentions‖ has made an attempt to determine the impact of social media on product evaluation and the resulting decision-making process of Indian consumers. The results are supportive of the fact that social media does affect purchase intentions. More

Specifically, there is a positive and strong impact of three factors namely peer communication, perceived product informativeness and the level of product involvement on consumers purchase intentions in the context of social media. The author concludes that as the products offered online cannot be examined, perceived information on social media and its spread through communication among peer groups facilitates consumer‘s evaluation and purchase related decision.

51. Shu-Chuan Chu, Sara Kamal & Yoojung Kim (May 2013) in their research work ―Understanding consumer‘s responses toward social media advertising and purchase intention towards luxury products‖ stated that the popularity of Social media as an advertising platform is increasing with the users interacting with each other and with the brand. In the same time period the online luxury market experienced enormous growth due to rising number of users in the age group of 18-35 and belonging to affluent background. This research focused on determining young social media user‘s belief, attitudes and behavioral response towards social media advertising. Brand consciousness and awareness was found to have its effect on user‘s attitudes towards social media advertising, which eventually affects their behavioral response towards social media advertising and ultimately affects purchase intention of luxury products.

52. Michel Laroche, Mohammad Reza Habibi, Marie-Odile Richard (Feb. 2013) in their research work ―To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?‖ aimed to show how brand communities based on social media influence the elements of customer centric model (i.e. the relationships between focal customer and brand, product, company and other customers) and brand loyalty. An empirical study was conducted on 441 respondents through survey method. The results of the study revealed that brand communities present on social media have a positive effect on customer-product, customer-brand, customer-company and customer-other customer relationships, these in turn have positive effect on brand trust and trust has positive effect on brand loyalty. The study found that

46 brand trust plays an intermediary role in converting the effects of relationships in brand community to brand loyalty.

53. Simona Vinerean, Iuliana Cetina, Luigi Dumitrescu & Mihai Tichindelean (June,2013) in their exploratory research work The Effects of Social Media Marketing on Online Consumer Behaviour, have tried to determine the students pattern of using social media and social networking sites in relation to their reactions to the advertisements on social media, where they have the freedom to choose the information they engage with. The aim of this research paper is to empirically investigate what type of social media users, have a positive outlook regarding advertising on social networking sites. This study has contributed to the existing knowledge, of consumer behaviour in an online environment and on developing positive reactions to online advertisements and have also presented new ways to classify the online consumers, which served as a basis for psychographic segmentation, based on respondents online activities. The authors concluded stating that in order to be successful in the social media environment, companies must undergo continuous online marketing research and should be sensitive to the changes in consumer behaviour patterns and should be able to identify new areas of customer interest. 54. The Mass media advertising is coming to an end and its chances of recovery are grim, this has been talked about by Ronald T. Rust and Richard W. Oliver (June 2013) in their research ―The Death of Advertisng‖. In this paper the authors have expressed their opinion about the traditional advertising business being directly hit by direct marketing. The reasons for the diminishing business of traditional advertising have been attributed to the arrival of new technologies that have empowered the consumers. A new market has evolved which is more in capacity, interactive and multimedia in place of the traditional mass media. This new media advertising results in more producer-consumer interactions.

55. Tan, Wei Jia; Kwek, Choon Ling; Li, Zhongwei (March 2013) in paper ―The Antecedents of Effectiveness Interactive Advertising in the Social Media‖, have tried to find out consumer‘s attitude towards interactive

47 advertising and its impact on purchase intention. Through their study the writers have made an attempt to share some understandings and opinions with advertisers and companies on the measurement of effectiveness, which they can consider when placing an interactive advertising. In the literature review the writers states the following factors as the determinants of the effectiveness of interactive advertising: Attitude towards Advertising, Attitude towards Advertised Brand, Purchase Intention, Time of exposure to advertisement(Yang, 1996). The results of the study reveal that, there is a positive relation between attitude towards advertisement and purchase intention to effectiveness of interactive advertising. Thus the writers concluded saying traditional advertising could be used, but interactive advertising measures should be an add on.

56. Asa’ad, & Anas, (2014) There are five dimension of the social media marketing, which means these five things are required to create connections with consumers or to building traffic to company websites  Online Communities: A company or business can use the social media to build a community around its products/business. Vibrant communities create loyalty and encourage discussions, which can contribute towards business development and improvement.  Interaction: A Facebook page or Twitter account can notify all its followers of specific subject quickly and simultaneously (Berselli, Burger, & Close, 2012). Social networking sites enable greater interaction with the online community through broadcasting up-to-date, consumer relevant information.  Sharing of Content: The sharing dimension is about the extent to which an individual ex-changes, distributes and receives content in a social media setting.  Accessibility: The social media is easily accessible and takes minimal or no costs to use. Social media is easy to use and does not require any special skills, knowledge to use.  Credibility: It is all about delivering your message clearly to the people, establishing credibility for what you say or do, connecting

emotionally with your target audience, motivating the buyer and generating loyal customers. The social media provides a very good platform for all businesses (big or small) to network and reach out to their target audience, connect with them directly and generate trust by listening to what they have to say.

57. Ranjeev Ramjidas Manrao(2014), in his Phd thesis Impact of Professional Networking Through Social Media on Improvement of Performance in Business submitted to School Of Management, D.Y.Patil University state that The study has extensively explored several existing business practices and approaches adopted in the market place with respect to usefulness and effectiveness of Professional Networking efforts made by businesses, which have varied impacts onthe Customers and Society at large. The study brought out the Professional Networking Parameters that have the most Impact on Business Performance Indicators. These are the Important, Practicable and Usable factors for Businesses to ensure Improvement of their Business Performances. the Relationship between Five Professional Networking Parameters and Four Business Performance Indicators is established through several statistical statistical tests and respective analysis. The study recommends as follows: (i) Professional Networking is related to and has an impact on Improvement of Performance in Business. (ii) Professional Networking Efforts, particularly Customer Education, Customer Service, Incentives, Offers and Discounts, Prompt do lead to Improvement of Performance in Business which is estimated through Business Performance Indicators. (iii)The most effective Professional Networking Parameters that have highest impact on Business Performances are Customer Education and Customer Service. And the Most Impacted Business Performance Indicators are Number of Enquiries and Customer Reach. This is true across the chosen segments / data sets.

(iv)Manufacturing Business and MSME Businesses need to take tips from Large and Service Businesses and modify their strategies so as to reap highest benefits from Social Media and Professional Networking. (v) Businesses can use Social media for reaching out to the right people for common benefits and building meaningful relationships. The world is up for a revolution called Social Media. (vi) Businesses across segments are using Customer Service and Customer Education to ensure Customer Delight and thus reap Business Gains thereby leading to Improvement of Performance in Business.

58. Guy Kawasaki & Peg Fitzpatrick ―The Art of Social Media‖ (2014)

Guy Kawasaki, the legendary former chief evangelist for Apple and one of the pioneers of business blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Tumbling etc. offers The Art of Social Media—the one essential guide one needs to get the most bang for time, effort, and money.

With practical tips, tricks, and insights, Guy and Peg present a bottom-up strategy to produce a focused, thorough, and compelling presence on the most popular social-media platforms. They provide steps to build your foundation, amass your digital assets, optimize your profile, attract more followers, and effectively integrate social media and blogging.

59 Shilpa H. Chheda in her M.Phil Thesis Impact of Social Media Marketing on Micro and Small Businesses(2014) submitted to School of Management, D.Y. Patil University states that Demographic details can be surmised as the respondents of the age group 15-35 lead the survey, indicating that the younger generation is spending more time on social media sites as they are logged in quite frequently. Awareness of social media is certainly very high among small businesses; it has become the talk of the town. It was found that nearly 70% of respondents use social media for their business in order to increase their visibility. But simultaneously, on the other side of the coin nearly 30% of the respondents are still not using social media and hence are missing out on a tremendous opportunity to connect and engage with potential customers. Small businesses have been slower to adopt, mainly because they feel social media is not significant for their type of

50 business. Many respondents perceive their customers base do not use social networks or not suitable for their type of business.

59. ―The Power of Visual Storytelling‖ by Ekaterina Walter & Jessica Gioglio(2014):

It was recently determined that people lose concentration after only eight seconds, leaving marketers with a very small window for impact. As a result, images were adopted as a way to work around our diminishing attention spans.

Today 63% of social media is made up of images. In fact, Web posts with visuals drive up to 180% more engagement than those without. ―The Power of Visual Storytelling‖ teaches you how to grow your business by leveraging photos, videos, info-graphics and other rich media. In this connected info- centric world, the authors explain that, consumers are assaulted by a phenomenon they call infobesity: an overload of information from marketers trying to capture their attention. With so much information coming in from all sides, people have developed filters to keep out irrelevant info and advertisers and marketers have to find new ways to get the attention of their target audience.

The social media platform has opened up ways to connect directly with customers and to exploit the opinions and feedback of customers. While these strategies have benefitted advertisers, the arena is quickly changing. With so many businesses and organisations using visual strategies, it is getting harder to filter out the noise and identify the unique voices.

This author not only shows the value of visual forms of advertising, it explains how to effectively use this strategy in ways that makes the advertiser stand out from the crowd. It all depends on how the message is packaged and presented.

The authors explain the need to build a story around the brand, using images, videos and other means in order to connect with customers. The advertiser needs to build a clear strategy on how to get their message across and this book shows how, by using examples of those who have already done it successfully.

The statistics used to highlight the importance of visual forms of communication is impressive. The human brain processes visual information at an incredible 6000 times the speed of processing text. Viewers spend 100% more time on web pages with videos and blog posts, with videos ensure 180% more engagement than plain text.

The authors emphasise the need to build a great graphic story around the brand that is being marketed. They also use a lot of visual examples that show how effective visual storytelling really is.

60. Study of The Effectiveness Of Online Marketing On Integrated Marketing Communication by Amruta Vijay Pawar(2014) submitted to School Of Management, D.Y.Patil University. According to the author Integrated Marketing Communication is the concept that makes all the marketing tools to work together as a unified force rather than work in isolation. It makes the use of entire marketing efforts in the form of advertising, public relation, personal selling, sales promotion, internet marketing , direct marketing in order to generate maximum impact on the target audience at the minimum cost. The author conducted a survey in Mumbai suburbs to find out the effectiveness of online marketing with a sample size of 200. The main aim of the study is identifying the importance of integrated marketing communication followed by the effectiveness of online marketing as a part of IMC strategy. The author wants to study the massive contribution of Online marketing as a part of Integrated Marketing Communication and the challenges in using online marketing. The author put forward following conclusions on analysis of data:

 Consumers reckon upon more than one medium to get knowledge of any brand.  Highest preference is being given to the online media.

 Consumers do require plenty of information to take purchase decision.  Survey reveals that majority of consumers have stopped preferring television commercials or print ads to get brand awareness.  Though consumers are convinced with advantages of online activities majority of them still feel that online marketing is not safe as there is more scope of fraudulent activities followed by privacy issues

It is therefore suggested that companies should not only rely on online marketing but should incorporate it as a part of IMC strategy so that online marketing can have a wider reach to the customers and its limitations will be repaired with the help of other traditional tools.

61. Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt (2015): In Platform, Hyatt maps out a detailed process to build a powerful and personalized online platform in the digital age. With so much information available and so many digital tools to choose from, Hyatt gives methodical, straightforward guidance for building and growing your own platform. He also helps one set proper expectations for digital marketing efforts with guidance on how to truly measure success.

62. Shalaka Ayarekar(2015) In Her Phd Thesis Impact And Effectiveness Of Social Media Advertising On Young Working Women‘s Buying Behaviour With Reference To Consumer Electronics - A Study Of Selected Cities In Maharashtra And Gujarat submitted to School Of Management, D.Y.Patil University state that there is a positive relationship between social Media Marketing on buying behavior of young working women. She carried out research in Nasik, Mumbai and Ahemdabad to assert the impact of social media on buying of electronic goods. Her Research leads to following points:  Association between Positive reactions or feelings towards social media advertisements with consumer buying behavior  Association between appealing factor of social media advertisements with consumer buying behavior  Association between memorable visuals and slogans factor of social media advertisements with consumer buying behaviour  Association between attractive factor of social media advertisements with consumer buying behavior  Association between Positive reactions or feelings towards social media advertisements with online purchase behavior

 Association between trustworthiness factor of social media advertising and online purchase behavior

Research Gap: From the literature review presented above, it is clearly evident that the research literature on consumer behavior and impact of social media marketing on buying decision process (BDP) of consumers leave a vast scope for additional research.

Many marketing analysts and researchers carried out research to identify and analyse the various factors influencing consumer behavior. Most of these studies are associated with impact of demographic factors affecting consumer behavior. These studies primarily emphasize on the ‗purchasing‘ stage of buying decision process. The last few years have seen a drastic change in marketing practices of e- retailing companies. This change is the result of availability of a vast plethora of alternatives available to consumer. The age –old conventional notion that ―customer is the King‖ is changing. Now the new notion is ―Customer is our buddy‖. As we know about the interests, likes, dislikes and preferences of our friends it is of utmost importance to know the customer thoroughly so that marketing strategies can be designed accordingly. A thorough survey of the literature review presented above illustrate that there are hardly any study about the impact of specific social media marketing strategies on consumer behavior and consumer decision making process. As the emergence of e-retailing and use of social media as a marketing tool is a comparatively recent phenomenon in India, there is still a scope of a lot of research work. There is no research works evident which identifies and examine specific social media marketing practices adopted by e retailers and analyzing their impact on consumer‘s decision making in context to youth of age group 18-40 years in Navi Mumbai with reference to different categories of products.

Although social media marketing is a well-researched topic, it has only been studied through experimental and theoretical research; studies never precisely describe the benefits retailers gain from this marketing tactic. In reviewing the rich plethora of multi-disciplinary literature, it is has become clear that studies are focusing on describing what social media marketing is as well as examining what factors affect consumer behavior relative to social networking. Despite the initial progress made by researchers, development in this area of study has been limited. Research needs to expand by providing a deeper understanding of the longterm promotional gains retailers obtain from social media marketing. More formalized studies are also needed to progress beyond theorized or predicted outcomes in order to gain knowledge of real life applications. This review of literature touches upon the gaps that currently exist within social media marketing research and points out the need for future studies to explore the benefits gained by marketing on social networking sites, especially for small retailers.

Chapter-3

Objective, Hypothesis and Research Methodology In today‘s technology driven world, social networking sites have become an avenue where retailers can extend their marketing campaigns to a wider range of consumers. The tools and approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan.

Based on the respective Research Gaps and critical observations from the extensive Review of Literature as well as Expert Interviews, the following Research Questions were developed to guide the study: Q.1) What is the impact of marketing via social media on the buying behavior of consumers? Q.2)Does the increased use of internet and social media leads to increased online purchasing? Q.3) Is the impact of social media marketing same for all the consumers irrespective of their demographic profile? Q.4) whether the impact of social media same for all categories of products? Q.5) What are the factors which motivate a person for online shopping?

3.1 Research objectives:

 To identify the impact of social media marketing strategies of e- retailing companies on the buying behavior of customers.  To study the effectiveness of Social Media tools like face book, twitter, LinkedIn, youtube etc.  To determine the demographic profile of customers who purchase products online from e-retailers.  To study on-line purchasing behavior of customers of age group 18- 40 years in Navi Mumbai.  To identify factors motivating customers to shop online.

3.2 Hypothesis:

H01: Social media marketing strategies of e-retailers have no significant impact on buying behavior of customers.

H11: Social media marketing strategies of e-retailers have a significant impact on buying behavior of customers.

H02: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and gender of respondent

H12: There is an association between effect of social medial marketing and gender of respondent.

H03: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and education of respondent.

H13: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and education of respondent.

H04: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and income of respondent.

H14: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and income of respondent.

H05: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and occupation of respondent.

H15: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and occupation of respondent.

H06: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and age of respondent.

H16: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and age of respondent.

3.3 Research Methodology:

As the proposed research is descriptive in nature, the aim is to obtain complete and accurate information with the help of a carefully planned

57 procedure. The research design of the proposed study will be prepared keeping in view the objective of study and availability of resources in order to minimize the bias and maximize the reliability of data. This chapter has been an over view of the research method used for this study and has include data collection, sample selection, type and contents of questionnaire, processing of data and finally interpretation of the data.

3.3a Data collection: The data for the purpose of the study would comprise of both primary and secondary data Secondary Data: The secondary data had been collected from various available resources. The data sources include Review of Literature available in various published reports, research papers research journals books and online databases like Proquest, www.Googlescholar.com, www.Alexa.com, Wikipedia etc. Primary Data: Primary data had been collected by questionnaire survey method. Research instrument that had been used for this research were questionnaire. A single questionnaire had been created and administered in different areas by the researcher. The target audience for this study people in the age group of 18-40 from Navi Mumbai belonging to diverse demographic profile. The respondents of questionnaire belong to all strata of life. The only condition for eligibility for being a respondent was to have a social media account. 3.3b Population studied: Navi Mumbai is selected as field of research which is a very well planned and organized area with a metropolitan constitution. With the existence of many government and private corporate offices, banks, financial institutions, business houses, malls, ports etc it provide a heterogeneous mix of population which helps in selecting an unbiased and random sample. 3.3c Reason of selecting age group of 18-40: The age group of 18-40 years is selected for the purpose of study because according to Mobile Association of India and ComScore report 2015, men under 35 and women under 40 are most indulgent in online shopping. People under age group of 40

58 are most active on social media as well. Therefore this age-group is the most relevant for study. 3.3d Questionnaire: Questionnaire method of data collection is intended to be used. It is a well framed questionnaire consist of 31 questions some of which have been divided into sub-questions in order to get an in depth knowledge of consumer behavior. The questionnaire comprised of questions pertaining to various sections mentioned below and the type of information associated with questions is enumerated in the following table:

Table 1: type of information associated with questions

3.3d Sampling Technique: Random Sampling technique has been used for this study. In a Random sample from infinite population selection of each item is controlled by the same probabilities and the successive selections are independent of one another. (C.R.Kothari, Research Methodology Methods and Techniques)

3.3e Sample size calculation:

Sample Size: The required sample size is determined by using following formula.

Z 2 * (p) * (1-p)

ss = 2 c

Z = Z value (e.g. 1.96 for 95% confidence level) p = percentage picking a choice, expressed as decimal c = margin of error, expressed as decimal Table 2: calculation of sample size Values Z-score value 1.96 P (percentage picking a choice) 0.5 c (margin of error) 0.05 ss (Sample Size) 385

As the required sample size is 385 respondents, 450 questionnaires were sent to the respondents out of which 409 questionnaire were found to be reliable, complete and relevant to the study. Data Analysis: The data was analyzed in SPSS version 21 using different statistical tools like Frequency Table With percentages, Chi-Square Test, Rank Order Table, Binomial test, Kruskal-Wallis test etc.

3.3g Limitations of the study: The conclusions are drawn on the basis of data collected from Navi Mumbai and every caution has been taken to keep the sample unbiased and true representative of total population but it may not be applicable for other parts of nation due to demographic and socio-cultural diversity.

Chapter 4 Social Media In today‘s technology driven world, social networking sites have become an avenue where retailers can extend their marketing campaigns to a wider range of consumers. The tools and approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly with the emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must learn how to use social media in a way that is consistent with their business plan. This is especially true for companies striving to gain a competitive advantage.

The extent to which social media is impacting the life of people can be understood from the fact that the number of social media users worldwide are increasing at an exponential rate. The following graph clearly depicts it:

Fig 6: Number of social network users worldwide from 2010 to 2020

Source: eMarketer© Statista10 Jan2017

Here the figures of 2017-2020 are predictions

The most popular social network websites are:

[A] Facebook:

Facebook is an American for-profit corporation and online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, United States. The Facebook website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students; however, later they expanded it to higher education institutions in the Boston area, the Ivy League schools, and Stanford University. The Facebook name comes from the face book directories often given to United States university students.

Fig: 7 Facebook popularity 2004-2015

Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/facebook (24 February 2015)

Facebook may be accessed by a large range of desktops, laptops, tablet computers, and smartphones over the Internet and mobile networks. After registering to use the site, users can create a user profile indicating their name, occupation, schools attended and so on. Users can add other users as "friends", exchange messages, post status updates and digital photos, share digital videos and links, use various software applications ("apps"), and receive notifications when others update their profiles or make posts. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups organized by

62 workplace, school, hobbies or other topics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". In groups, editors can pin posts to top. Additionally, users can complain about or block unpleasant people. Because of the large volume of data that users submit to the service, Facebook has come under scrutiny for its privacy policies. Facebook makes most of its revenue from advertisements which appear onscreen. As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based on the number of active user accounts

Facebook has more than 1.65 billion monthly active users as of March 31, 2016 As of April 2016, Facebook was the most popular social networking site in the world, based on the number of active user accounts.

Fig 8: percentage of global population using Facebook by region

Source: Internet world stats: facebook© Statista20 Oct 2016

Subsidiaries of Facebook: Messenger, instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR

Major facilities provided by Facebook:

Notes- Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.[

Chat- Facebook Chat was added April 6, 2008. It is a Comet-based instant messaging application which allows users to communicate with other Facebook users in a way similar in functionality to instant messaging software.

Gifts- Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient's profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.

Marketplace- On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace, which lets users post free classified ads. Marketplace has been compared to Craigslist by CNET, which points out that the major difference between the two is that listings posted by a user on Marketplace are seen only by users in the same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be seen by anyone.

Messaging- A new Messaging platform, codenamed "Project Titan", was launched on November 15, 2010. Described as a "Gmail killer" by some publications, the system allows users to directly communicate with each other via Facebook using several different methods (text messaging, or through the Facebook website or mobile app)—no matter what method is used to deliver a message, they are contained within single threads in a unified inbox. As with other Facebook features, users can adjust from whom they can receive messages—including just friends, friends of friends, or from anyone. Aside from the Facebook website, messages can also be accessed through the site's mobile apps, or a dedicated Facebook Messenger app. This feature makes it a very popular choice among its users as it serves multiple functions just by installation of a single app.

Voice calls- Since April 2011, Facebook users have had the ability to make live voice calls via Facebook Chat, allowing users to chat with others from all

64 over the world. This feature, which is provided free through T-Mobile's new Bobsled service, lets the user add voice to the current Facebook Chat as well as leave voice messages on Facebook.

Video calling- On July 6, 2011, Facebook launched its video calling services using Skype as its technology partner

Video viewing- In September 2014, Facebook announced that it delivers 1 billion video views per day and that it would begin showing everyone view counts on publicly posted videos from users, Pages, and public figures. It also confirmed that it is recommending additional videos to users after they have watched a video. Sixty-five percent of Facebook's video views are coming from mobile where Facebook's user base is shifting, and views grew 50 percent from May to July, in part thanks to the viral ALS Ice Bucket Challengefinding a home on Facebook.

Like button- The like button is a social networking feature, allowing users to express their appreciation of content such as status updates, comments, photos, and advertisements. It is also a social plug-in of the Facebook Platform – launched on April 21, 2010 – that enables participating Internet websites to display a similar like button..

Following a lengthy period of calls from the public to include a dislike button on the Facebook interface, Zuckerberg explained in a Q&A session on December 11, 2014 that his hesitance was due to a concern about a tone of negativity on the platform, whereby users could "shame" others, and he offered the comment option for situations where people were unwilling to use the like function.

Following- On September 14, 2011, Facebook added the ability for users to provide a "Subscribe" button on their page, which allows users to subscribe to public postings by the user without needing to add him or her as a friend. In conjunction, Facebook also introduced a system in February 2012 to verify the identity of certain accounts.

In December 2012, Facebook announced that because of user confusion surrounding its function, the Subscribe button would be re-labeled as a

"Follow" button—making it more similar to other social networks with similar functions.

Privacy- Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see specific parts of their profile. The website is free to its users and generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. Facebook requires a user's name and profile picture (if applicable) to be accessible by everyone. Users can control who sees other information they have shared, as well as who can find them in searches, through their privacy settings. the social network has redesigned a number of privacy settings and launched new features. Facebook overhauled its privacy center and added reminders to help users better understand what they share and with whom they share it. The social network launched a privacy checkup tool

[B] Twitter:

Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can post and read tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them. Users access Twitter through the website interface, SMS or mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco and has more than 25 offices around the world.

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July, whereby the service rapidly gained worldwide popularity. In 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet". As of March 2016, Twitter had more than 310 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, with 40 million tweets sent by 10 p.m. that day.

Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then an

66 undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. The original project code name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The decision was also partly due to the fact that domain twitter.com was already in use, and it was six months after the launch of twttr that the crew purchased the domain and changed the name of the service to Twitter. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.

Fig 9: Logo of Twitter:

Source: www.twitter.com(20 Nov 2016)

Features:

 Tweets

The Twitter account page for Wikipedia, demonstrating the account- customized timeline view which shows tweets in reverse chronological order. Tweets are publicly visible by default, but senders can restrict message delivery to just their followers. Users can tweet via the Twitter website, compatible external applications (such as for smartphones), or by Short Message Service (SMS) available in certain countries. Users may subscribe to other users' tweets—this is known as "following" and subscribers are known as "followers"] or "tweeps", a portmanteau of Twitter and peeps. Individual tweets can be forwarded by other users to their own feed, a process known as a "retweet". Users can also "like" (formerly "favorite") individual

67 tweets. Twitter allows users to update their profile via their mobile phone either by text messaging or by apps released for certain smartphones and tablets. Twitter has been compared to a web-based Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. In a 2009 Time essay, technology author Steven Johnson described the basic mechanics of Twitter as "remarkably simple":

As a social network, Twitter revolves around the principle of followers. When one chooses to follow another Twitter user, that user's tweets appear in reverse chronological order on your main Twitter page. If one follows 20 people, he will see a mix of tweets scrolling down the page: breakfast-cereal updates, interesting new links, music recommendations, even musings on the future of education.

The first tweet was posted by Jack Dorsey (creator) at 9:50pm.PST on 21 March 2006 and read "just setting up my twitter".On 21 October 2009, the first tweet was sent from space. US astronauts Nicola Stott and Jeff Williams took part in a live 'tweetup' from the International Space Station with around 35 members of the public at NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC, USA.

 Content: San Antonio-based market-research firm Pear Analytics analyzed 2,000 tweets (originating from the United States and in English) over a two-week period in August 2009 from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm (CST) and separated them into six categories: • Pointless babble – 40% • Conversational – 38% • Pass-along value – 9% • Self-promotion – 6% • Spam – 4% • News – 4%

Despite Jack Dorsey's own open contention that a message on Twitter is "a short burst of inconsequential information", social networking researcher danah boyd responded to the Pear Analytics survey by arguing that what the Pear researchers labelled "pointless babble" is better characterized as "social grooming" and/or "peripheral awareness" (which she justifies as persons

"wanting to know what the people around them are thinking and doing and feeling, even when co-presence isn't viable").

Fig.10.Categories of content of twitter

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/content_of_tweets.svg( September 2010)

Similarly, a survey of Twitter users found that a more specific social role of passing along messages that include a hyperlink is an expectation of reciprocal linking by followers.

 Format

Users can group posts together by topic or type by use of hashtags – words or phrases prefixed with a "#" sign. Similarly, the "@" sign followed by a username is used for mentioning or replying to other users. To repost a message from another Twitter user and share it with one's own followers, a user can click the retweet button within the Tweet. The "Twitter Lists" feature make it possible to follow ad hoc lists of authors instead of individual authors.

Through SMS, users can communicate with Twitter through five gateway numbers: short codes for the United States, Canada, India, New Zealand, and an Isle of Man-based number for international use. There is also a short code in the United Kingdom which is only accessible to those on the Vodafone, O2

69 and Orange networks. In India, since Twitter only supports tweets from Bharti Airtel, an alternative platform called smsTweet was set up by a user to work on all networks. A similar platform called GladlyCast exists for mobile phone users in Singapore and Malaysia.

The tweets were set to a largely constrictive 140-character limit for compatibility with SMS messaging, introducing the shorthand notation and slang commonly used in SMSmessages. The 140-character limit also increased the usage of URL shortening services such as bit.ly, goo.gl, and tr.im, and content-hosting services, such as Twitpic, memozu.com and NotePub to accommodate multimedia content and text longer than 140 characters. Since June 2011, Twitter has used its own t.co domain for automatic shortening of all URLs posted on its website, making other link shorteners superfluous for staying within the 140 character limit.

On May 24, 2016, Twitter announced that media such as photos and videos, and the person's handle, would not count against the 140 character limit. A user photo post used to count for about 24 characters. Attachments and links will also no longer be part of the character limit.

On July 17, Twitter will launch a new way for advertisers to target users that have tweeted with a certain emoji or engaged with tweets with a certain emoji.

 Trending topics

A word, phrase or topic that is mentioned at a greater rate than others is said to be a "trending topic". Trending topics become popular either through a concerted effort by users, or because of an event that prompts people to talk about a specific topic. These topics help Twitter and their users to understand what is happening in the world and what people's opinions are about it.

The Twitter web interface displays a list of trending topics on a sidebar on the home page, along with sponsored content.

 Adding and following content

There are numerous tools for adding content, monitoring content and conversations including Telly (video sharing, old name is Twitvid), TweetDeck,

Salesforce.com, HootSuite, and Twitterfeed. As of 2009, fewer than half of tweets posted were posted using the web user interface with most users using third-party applications (based on an analysis of 500 million tweets by Sysomos).

Verified accounts: The blue check mark right of the profile name confirms that it is a verified account. A verified Twitter account formally validates the identity of the person or company that owns the account—the aim of the "verified" status is to prove that a real-world person or company is not being impersonated, through the placement of a small blue checkmark by the top- right corner of a user's page, or next to the username in the platform's Search function. Twitter is responsible for assigning the blue checkmark, and it is frequently applied to the accounts of notable people in politics, music, movies, business, fashion, government, sports, media, and journalism.

The owners of verified accounts can also access additional features that are not available to standard Twitter-account holders. These features include:

• The ability to choose how their notifications and mentions are presented. Since verified accounts typically receive a lot of followers, account holders can filter these notices based on whether or not they are from verified accounts.

• The ability to view information about their followers and their involvement on Twitter.

• The ability to receive direct messages from all followers or only selected followers.

Twitter has mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows 10, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Firefox OS, and Nokia S40. There is also version of the website for mobile devices, SMS and MMS service. For many years, Twitter has limited the use of third party applications accessing the service by implementing a 100,000 user limit per application.

 Polls: On October 21, 2015, Twitter began to roll out the ability to attach poll questions to tweets. Polls are open for 24 hours, and voters are not personally identified.

[C] Linkedin:

LinkedIn is a business and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites. Founded on December 14, 2002, and launched on May 5, 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs. As of 2015, most of the site's revenue came from selling access to information about its users to recruiters and sales professionals. As of September 2016, LinkedIn has more than 467 million accounts, out of which more than 106 million are active. LinkedIn allows users (workers and employers) to create profiles and "connections" to each other in an online social network which may represent real-world professional relationships. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either an existing relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participated in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.

The site has an Alexa Internet ranking as the 14th most popular website (October 2016). According to the New York Times, US high school students are now creating LinkedIn profiles to include with their college applications. Based in the United States, the site is, as of 2013, available in 24 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Czech, Polish, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, and Tagalog. LinkedIn filed for an initial public offering in January 2011 and traded its first shares on May 19, 2011, under the NYSE symbol"LNKD".

On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced plans to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The acquisition was completed on December 8, 2016.

Fig 11:Logo of Linkedin:

Source: www.linkedin.com(extracted on 20 Nov 2016)

LinkedIn is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with offices in Omaha, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Sao Paulo, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Stockholm, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, India and Dubai. In January 2016, the company had around 9,200 employees. LinkedIn's CEO is Jeff Weiner, previously a Yahoo! Inc. executive. Founder Reid Hoffman, previously CEO of LinkedIn, is Chairman of the Board. It is funded by Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006. Through January 2011, the company had received a total of $103 million of investment.

Facilities provided by Linkedin: The basic functionality of LinkedIn allows users (workers and employers) to create profiles, which for employees typically consist of a curriculum vitae describing their work experience, education and training and a photo of them. Users can list their workplace skills on their profile. As well, the site enables users to make "connections" to each other in an online social network which may represent real-world professional relationships. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. However, if the invitee selects "I don't know" or "Spam", this counts against the inviter. If the inviter gets too many of such responses, the user's account may be restricted or closed.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

 Obtaining introductions to the connections of connections (termed second-degree connections) and connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections)

 Users can search for second-degree connections who work at a specific company they are interested in, and then ask a specific first- degree connection in common for an introduction  Users can find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.  Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.  Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.  Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.  Users can follow different companies.  Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs that they would like to apply for.  Users can "like" and "congratulate" each other's updates and new employments.  Users can wish each other a happy birthday.  Users can see who has visited their profile page.

 The "gated-access approach" (where contact with any professional requires either an existing relationship, or the intervention of a contact of theirs) is intended to build trust among the service's users. LinkedIn participated in the EU's International Safe Harbor Privacy Principles.

[D] Google +:

Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus) is an interest- based social network that is owned and operated by Google. Google+ is the company's fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010, retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, retired by March 1, 2012), and Orkut (launched in 2004, as of 2013 operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil – retired in September 2014).

Google+ launched in June 2011. Features included the ability to post photos and status updates to the stream or interest based communities, group different types of relationships (rather than simply "friends") into Circles, a multi-person instant messaging, text and video chat called Hangouts, events,

74 location tagging, and the ability to edit and upload photos to private cloud- based albums.

According to a 2016 book by a former Facebook employee, some leaders at Facebook saw Google's foray into social networking as a serious threat to the company. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg instituted a company-wide "lockdown", signaling that employees were supposed to dedicate time to bringing Facebook's features into line with Google+

Features and Functions of Google+

User profile: A Google+ User profile is a public visible account of a user that is attached to many Google properties. It includes basic social networking services like a profile photo, about section, background photo, cover photo, previous work and school history, interests, places lived and an area to post status updates. It also includes several identity service sections, such as a contributor and other profiles area that let one link their "properties across the web". These sections optionally link to other social media accounts one has, any blogs one owns or have written or sites one is a contributor to.

Circles: Circles is a core feature of the Google+ Social Platform. It enables users to organize people into groups or lists for sharing across various Google products and services. Organization of circles is done through a drag-and- drop interface. Once a circle is created, a Google+ user can share specific private content to only that circle. For example, work themed content can be shared with only colleagues, and one's friends and family could see more personal content and photos. The option to share Public or with Everyone is always available. Another function of Circles is to control the content of one's Stream. A user may click on a Circle on the left side of the page and the Stream portion of the page (the center) will contain only posts shared by users in that Circle. For the unsegmented Stream (includes content from all of a user's Circles), each Circle has a "slider" configuration item with four positions: nothing, some things, most things, and everything. The nothing position requires the user to select (click on) the Circle name explicitly to see

75 content from users in that Circle. The everything setting as its name implies filters nothing out from people in that Circle.

Stream: In the "Stream" function, which occupies the middle of three columns on the page, users can see updates from those in their Circles. There is an input box which allows users to enter a post. Along with the text entry field there are icons to upload and share photos and videos. The Stream can be filtered to show only posts from specific Circles.

Identity Service: Starting in November 2011, Google+ profiles are used as the background account for many Google Services including YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps, Android, Google Play, Google Music, Google Voice, Google Wallet, Google Local and more. As of January 10, Google Search is customized with a feature called Search Plus Your World, which inserts content shared on Google+ profiles and brand pages under Web Search results, if one is logged into their Google+ account while using it.The feature, which is opt-in, was received with controversy over the emphasis of Google+ profiles over other social networking services. The feature builds upon the earlier "Social Search" feature which indexes content shared or published by authors; "Social Search", however, relied partly upon returns from non-Google services, such as Twitter and Flickr. Google and Twitter had a contract that expired in July 2011 which is the reason Tweets are no longer shown.

+1 Button: Google+ has a "+1 button" to allow people to recommend sites and parts of sites, similar in use to Facebook's Like button.

Google+ Pages: Google+ Pages was released on November 7, 2011 to all users, which allows businesses to connect with fans. It allows entities which are not individuals (such as organizations, companies, and publications) to set up profiles, or "pages", for the posting and syndication of posts. It is similar to Facebook Pages.

Google+ Views was introduced on April 1, 2014. It features a "view counter", which is displayed on every user‘s profile page. The view counter shows the

76 number of times the user's content has been seen by others, including photos, posts, and profile page.

Additional features:

 "Instant Upload" is specific to mobile devices; it stores photos or videos in a private album for sharing later.  "Data Liberation" option provides the ability to download one's content from Google+.  Hashtags, where "#" is written before a word or CamelCase, are hyperlinked to the most recent or highest-trending search results within Google+ containing the term.  Broadened SMS support so that users in the 185 countries including U.S. and India can now post to Google+, receive notifications, and respond to group messages via SMS. They have also made it easier to +mention someone from a mobile device. Now, to +mention another user, one simply writes +[their name] inside a post or comment. In order to +1 comments more easily, users are now able to +1 them directly from their iOS devices. They also introduced this feature to the Android app in December 2011.  Select public figures have verified names. Google determines whether a particular profile warrants verification. The purpose is to indicate to site visitors whether a particular profile belongs to who one would generally expect the name to be, and not someone who coincidentally has the same name as a public figure. Verified identity profiles have a checkmark logo after their name. Examples of profiles bearing the verified name badge include Linus Torvalds, William Shatner, Leo Laporte, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

[E] Youtube:

Youtube The service was created by three former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in February 2005. In November 2006, it was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion. YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries. The site allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add

77 to favorites, report and comment on videos, and it makes use of WebM, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated and corporate media videos. Available content includes video clips, TV show clips, music videos, short and documentary films, audio recordings, movie trailers and other content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.

Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, but media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via YouTube, as part of the YouTube partnership program. YouTube earns advertising revenue from Google AdSense, a program which targets ads according to site content and audience.

[D] Pintreset:

Pinterest is a web and mobile application company that operates a photo sharing website. Registration is required for use.The site was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp.

Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann summarized the company as a "catalog of ideas," rather than as a social network, that inspires users to "go out and do that thing."

Fig 12:Logo of pinterest(extracted on 20 Nov 2016)

Pinterest is a free website that requires registration to use. Users can upload, save, sort, and manage images—known as pins—and other media content (e.g., videos) through collections known as pinboards. Pinterest acts as a personalized media platform. Users can browse the content of others in their feed. Users can then save individual pins to one of their own boards using the "Pin It" button, with Pinboards typically organized by a central topic or theme. Users can personalize their experience with Pinterest by pinning items, creating boards, and interacting with other members. The end result is that

78 the "pin feed" of each user displays unique, personalized results.Content can also be found outside of Pinterest and similarly uploaded to a board via the "Pin It" button, which can be downloaded to the bookmark bar on a web browser, or be implemented by a webmaster directly on the website. They also have the option of sending a pin to other Pinterest users and email accounts through the "Send" button. Some websites include red and white "pin it" buttons on items, which allow Pinterest users to pin them directly. An account can also be created and accessed by linking Pinterest to a Facebook or Twitter profile. When a user re-posts or re-pins an image to their own board, they have the option of notifying their Facebook and Twitter followers; this feature can be managed on the settings page. On the main Pinterest page, a "pin feed" appears, displaying the chronological activity from the Pinterest boards that a user follows.

[E] Instagram: Instagram Instagram is an online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012 and over 300 million as of December 2014. Instagram is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Support for the app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows 10 devices and Android handsets, while third-party Instagram apps are available for BlackBerry 10 and Nokia-Symbian Devices.

Fig 13: Logo of instagram: (extracted on 20 Nov 2016)

The service was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock. In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook,

79 as the parent company, only grew by 3%. Snapchat has more than 150 million daily active users and aims to generate more than $350m in advertising revenue in 2016.

Fig 14: Leading social networks according to number of active users

Source: Facebook:We are social; WhatsApp,Twitter,Tumblr,Linkedin,Google© Statista2017 (extracted on 20 Jan 2017)

Social Media Marketing:

Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Social media marketing refers to advertising that is posted or streamed on social media websites or applications. Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Most of these social media platforms have their own built- in data analytics tools, which enable companies to track the progress, success, and engagement of ad campaigns

For example, a user sees advertisements or sponsored ads in his personal Facebook feed. Advantages of social media marketing include increased brand loyalty, decreased marketing costs, improved customer insights and increased inbound traffic. Social media marketing is typically effective. A social media marketing strategy helps a business create awareness of and generate interest in its products or services using social networks. Businesses can develop and use social media marketing strategies for free or low-cost advertising, visibility, market research and instant feedback from customer interactions and reviews.

Companies address range stakeholders through social media marketing including current and potential customers, current and potential employees, journalists, bloggers, and the general public. On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of the implementation of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g. more active or passive use) and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone". To use social media effectively, firms should learn to allow customers and Internet users to post user-generated content (e.g., online comments, product reviews, etc.), also known as "earned media", rather than use marketer- prepared advertising copy.

Social networking websites allow individual, businesses and other organizations to interact with one another and build relationships and communities online. When companies join these social channels, consumers can interact with them directly. That interaction can be more personal to users

81 than traditional methods of outbound marketing and advertising. Social networking sites act as word of mouth or more accurately, e-word of mouth. The Internet's ability to reach billions across the globe has given online word of mouth a powerful voice and far reach. The ability to rapidly change buying patterns and product or service acquisition and activity to a growing number of consumers is defined as an influence network. Social networking sites and blogs allow followers to "retweet" or "repost" comments made by others about a product being promoted, which occurs quite frequently on some social media sites. By repeating the message, the user's connections are able to see the message, therefore reaching more people. Because the information about the product is being put out there and is getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company.

Social networking websites are based on building virtual communities that allow consumers to express their needs, wants and values, online. Social media marketing then connects these consumers and audiences to businesses that share the same needs, wants, and values. Through social networking sites, companies can keep in touch with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target audience. Social networking sites also include much information about what products and services prospective clients might be interested in. Through the use of new semantic analysis technologies, marketers can detect buying signals, such as content shared by people and questions posted online. An understanding of buying signals can help sales people target relevant prospects and marketers run micro-targeted campaigns.

Bennet Shea, in his research work “ Social media business statistics, facts, figures and trends 2014” states that over 80% of business executives identified social media as an integral part of their business. Business retailers have seen 133% increases in their revenues from social media marketing.

According to a recent study, about half the world's population is currently on the Internet. Roughly 75% of those people are on social media and ¾ of those folks have social media accounts on their mobile phones. Mobile phone usage is beneficial for social media marketing because mobile phones have social networking capabilities, allowing individuals immediate web browsing and access to social networking sites. Mobile phones have grown at a rapid rate, fundamentally altering the path-to-purchase process by allowing consumers to easily obtain pricing and product information in real time and allowing companies to constantly remind and update their followers. Many companies are now putting QR (Quick Response) codes along with products for individuals to access the company website or online services with their smart phones. Retailers use QR codes to facilitate consumer interaction with brands by linking the code to brand websites, promotions, product information, or any other mobile-enabled content. In addition, Real-time bidding use in the mobile advertising industry is high and rising because of its value for on-the-go web browsing. In 2012, Nexage, a provider of real time bidding in mobile advertising, reported a 37% increase in revenue each month. Adfonic, another mobile advertisement publishing platform, reported an increase of 22 billion ad requests that same year.

Mobile devices and The internet also influence the way consumers interact with media and has many further implications for TV ratings, advertising, mobile commerce and more. Mobile media consumption such as mobile audio streaming or mobile video are on the rise – in the United States, more than 100 million users are projected to access online video content via mobile device. Mobile video revenue consists of pay-per-view downloads, advertising, and subscriptions. As of 2013, worldwide mobile phone Internet user penetration was 73.4%. In 2017, figures suggest that more than 90% of Internet users will access online content through their phones.

Strategies for social media marketing

There are two basic strategies for engaging the social media as marketing tools:

(a) Active approach: Social media can be used not only as public relations and direct marketing tools but also as communication channels targeting very specific audiences with social media influencers and social media personalities and as effective customer engagement tools. Technologies predating social media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers can also provide advertisers with a fairly targeted audience, given that an ad placed during a sports game broadcast or in the sports section of a newspaper is likely to be read by sports fans. However, social media websites can target niche markets even more precisely. Using digital tools such as Google Adsense, advertisers can target their ads to very specific demographics, such as people who are interested in social entrepreneurship, political activism associated with a particular political party, or video gaming. Google Adsense does this by looking for keywords in social media user's online posts and comments. It would be hard for a TV station or paper-based newspaper to provide ads that are this targeted (though not impossible, as can be seen with "special issue" sections on niche issues, which newspapers can use to sell targeted ads).

Facebook and LinkedIn are leading social media platforms where users can hyper-target their ads. Hypertargeting not only uses public profile information but also information users submit but hide from others. There are several examples of firms initiating some form of online dialog with the public to foster relations with customers. According to Constantinides, Lorenzo and Gómez Borja (2008) "Business executives like Jonathan Swartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, Steve Jobs CEO of Apple Computers, and McDonalds Vice President Bob Langert posted regularly in their CEO blogs, encouraging customers to interact and freely express their feelings, ideas, suggestions, or remarks about their postings, the company or its products". Using customer influencers (for example popular bloggers) can be a very efficient and cost- effective method to launch new products or services.

(b) Passive approach:

Social media can be a useful source of market information and a way to hear customer perspectives. Blogs, content communities, and forums are platforms

84 where individuals share their reviews and recommendations of brands, products, and services. Businesses are able to tap and analyze the customer voices and feedback generated in social media for marketing purposes. In this sense the social media is a relatively inexpensive source of market intelligence which can be used by marketers and managers to track and respond to consumer-identified problems and detect market opportunities. Unlike traditional market research methods such as surveys, focus groups, and data mining which are time-consuming and costly, and which take weeks or even months to analyze, marketers can use social media to obtain 'live' or "real time" information about consumer behavior and viewpoints on a company's brand or products. This can be useful in the highly dynamic, competitive fast-paced and global marketplace of the 2010s.

One of the main purposes of employing social media in marketing is as a communications tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and makes them visible to those who have no knowledge of their products. These companies use social media to create buzz, and learn from and target customers. It's the only form of marketing that can finger consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey. While platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ have a larger amount of monthly users, the visual media sharing based mobile platforms, however, garner a higher interaction rate in comparison and have registered the fastest growth and have changed the ways in which consumers engage with brand content. Instagram has an interaction rate of 1.46% with an average of 130 million users monthly as opposed to Twitter which has a .03% interaction rate with an average of 210 million monthly users. Unlike traditional media that are often cost-prohibitive to many companies, a social media strategy does not require astronomical budgeting.

This has changed the ways that companies approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions are now being carried out over online platforms with much higher visibility. Customers can now post reviews of products and services, rate customer service, and

85 ask questions or voice concerns directly to companies through social media platforms.

Social Media marketing strategies adopted by different social media websites:

(a)Facebook:

 Most of Facebook's revenue comes from advertising. Facebook generally has a lower clickthrough rate (CTR) for advertisements than most major websites. According to BusinessWeek.com, banner advertisements on Facebook have generally received one-fifth the number of clicks compared to those on the Web as a whole, although specific comparisons can reveal a much larger disparity.  In February 2015, Facebook announced that it had reached two million active advertisers with most of the gain coming from small businesses. An active advertiser is an advertiser that has advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. In March 2016, Facebook announced that it reached three million active advertisers with more than 70% from outside the US.  Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts. They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions, and testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. As of May 2015, 93% of businesses marketers use Facebook to promote their brand. A study from 2011 attributed 84% of "engagement" or clicks to Likes that link back to Facebook advertising. By 2014, Facebook had restricted the content published from businesses' and brands' pages. Adjustments in Facebook algorithms have reduced the audience for non-paying business pages (that have at least 500,000 "Likes") from 16% in 2012 down to 2% in February 2014.

(b)Twitter:

Twitter allows companies to promote their products in short messages known as tweets limited to 140 characters which appear on followers' Home timelines. Tweets can contain text, Hashtag, photo, video, Animated GIF, Emoji, or links to the product's website and other social media profiles, etc. Twitter is also used by companies to provide customer service. Some companies make support available 24/7 and answer promptly, thus improving brand loyalty and appreciation.

(c)Linkedin:

 LinkedIn allowed businesses to list products and services on company profile pages; it also permitted LinkedIn members to "recommend" products and services and write reviews.  In mid-2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn Direct Ads as a form of sponsored advertising. In October 2008, LinkedIn revealed plans to open its social network of 30 million professionals globally as a potential sample for business-to-business research. It is testing a potential social network revenue model - research that to some appears more promising than advertising.On July 23, 2013, LinkedIn announced their Sponsored Updates ad service. Individuals and companies can now pay a fee to have LinkedIn sponsor their content and spread it to their user base. This is a common way for social media sites such as LinkedIn to generate revenue.  Talent Solutions, through which recruiters and corporations pay for branded corporation and career listing pages, pay-per-click targeted job ads, and access to the LinkedIn database of users and resumes.  Marketing Solutions, which advertisers pay for pay per click-through targeted ads.  Premium Subscriptions, through which LinkedIn users can pay for advanced services, such as LinkedIn Business, LinkedIn Talent (for recruiters), LinkedIn JobSeeker, and LinkedIn Sales for sales professions.

(d)Google+

Google+, in addition to providing pages and some features of Facebook, is also able to integrate with the Google search engine. Other Google products are also integrated, such as Google Adwords and Google Maps. With the development of Google Personalized Search and other location-based search services, Google+ allows for targeted advertising methods, navigation services, and other forms of location-based marketing and promotion. Google+ can also be beneficial for other digital marketing campaigns, as well as social media marketing. Google+ authorship was known to have a significant benefit on a website's search engine optimization, before the relationship was removed by Google. Google+ is one of the fastest growing social media networks and can benefit almost any business.

(e)Instagram

According to official site of Instagram in May 2014, Instagram had over 200 million users. The user engagement rate of Instagram was 15 times higher than of Facebook and 25 times higher than that of Twitter. According to Scott Galloway, the founder of L2 and a professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business, latest studies estimate that 93% of prestige brands have an active presence on Instagram and include it in their marketing mix. When it comes to brands and businesses, Instagram's goal is to help companies to reach their respective audiences through captivating imagery in a rich, visual environment. Moreover, Instagram provides a platform where user and company can communicate publicly and directly, making itself an ideal platform for companies to connect with their current and potential customers.

Many brands are now heavily using this mobile app to boost their marketing strategy. Instagram can be used to gain the necessary momentum needed to capture the attention of the market segment that has an interest in the product offering or services. As Instagram is supported by Apple and android system, it can be easily accessed by smartphone users. Moreover, it can be accessed by the Internet as well. Thus, the marketers see it as a potential platform to expand their brands exposure to the public, especially the younger target group. On top of this, marketers do not only use social media for traditional

Internet advertising, but they also encourage users to create attention for a certain brand. This generally creates an opportunity for greater brand exposure. Furthermore, marketers are also using the platform to drive social shopping and inspire people to collect and share pictures of their favorite products. Many big names have already jumped on board: Starbucks, MTV, Nike, Marc Jacobs, and Red Bull are a few examples of multinationals that adopted the mobile photo app early. Fashion blogger Danielle Bernstein, who goes by @weworewhat on Instagram, collaborated with Harper's Bazaar to do a piece on how brands are using Instagram to market their products, and how bloggers make money from it. Bernstein, who currently has one and a half million followers on Instagram, and whose "outfit of the day" photos on Snapchat get tens of thousands of screenshots, explained that for a lot of her sponsored posts, she must feature the brand in a certain amount of posts, and often cannot wear a competitor's product in the same picture. According to Harper's Bazaar, industry estimates say that brands are spending more than $1 billion per year on consumer-generated advertising. Founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom even went to Paris Fashion week, going to couture shows and meeting with designers to learn more about how style bloggers, editors, and designers are currently dominating much of the content on his application.

Instagram has proven itself a powerful platform for marketers to reach their customers and prospects through sharing pictures and brief messages. According to a study by Simply Measured, 71% of the world's largest brands are now using Instagram as a marketing channel. For companies, Instagram can be used as a tool to connect and communicate with current and potential customers. The company can present a more personal picture of their brand, and by doing so the company conveys a better and true picture of itself. The idea of Instagram pictures lies on on-the-go, a sense that the event is happening right now, and that adds another layer to the personal and accurate picture of the company. In fact, Thomas Rankin, co-founder and CEO of the program Dash Hudson, stated that when he approves a blogger's Instagram post before it is posted on the behalf of a brand his company represents, his only negative feedback is if it looks too posed. "It's not an

89 editorial photo," he explained, "We're not trying to be a magazine. We're trying to create a moment." Another option Instagram provides the opportunity for companies to reflect a true picture of the brandfrom the perspective of the customers, for instance, using the user-generated contents thought the hashtags encouragement. Other than the filters and hashtags functions, the Instagram's 15-second videos and the recently added ability to send private messages between users have opened new opportunities for brands to connect with customers in a new extent, further promoting effective marketing on Instagram.

(f)YouTube

YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste. Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested; this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos." YouTube also enable publishers to earn money through its YouTube Partner Program. Companies can pay YouTube for a special "channel" which promotes the company‘s products or services.

(g)Pinterest: Pinterest also allows businesses to create pages aimed at promoting their companies online. Such pages can serve as a "virtual storefront". The users spent less time on the company's website, choosing instead to browse from the company's pinboard. Further brand studies have continued to show Pinterest is more effective at driving sales than other forms of social media. In 2013, Pinterest introduced a new tool called 'Rich Pins', to enhance the customer experience when browsing through pins made by companies. Business pages can include various data, topics and information such as prices of products, ratings of movies or ingredients for recipes.

Like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest now lets marketers access the data collected on its users. Technology providers including Salesforce.com, Hootsuite, Spredfast, Percolate, Piqora, Curalate, and Tailwind are presently the only companies granted access to the data. By granting access to users' data, Pinterest lets marketers investigate how people respond to products. If a product has a high number of repins, this generally tells the producer of the product that it is well liked by many members of the Pinterest community. Now that Pinterest lets marketers access the data, companies can view user comments on the product to learn how people like or dislike it.

A 2013 study on Pinterest practices found that "repinning" was the most popular action by users, followed by likes, and lastly, commenting. According to Salesforce.com, Pinterest has become a key part of corporate digital marketing strategies. Before 2013, Pinterest only accounted for about 2 percent of global social-mediated sales, however it has recently substantially increased to about 23 percent. People use social media sites like Pinterest to direct or guide their choices in products. However, at this time, the data collected from Pinterest is predominantly from female users. A recent study found that 80% of Pinterest users are women. Many businesses use Pinterest Analytics to investigate whether the time spent on the social networking site is actually producing results or not.

(h)Blogs Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Companies that recognize the need for information, originality/ and accessibility employ blogs to make their products popular and unique/ and ultimately reach out to consumers who are privy to social media. Consumers view coverage in the media or from bloggers as being more neutral and credible than print advertisements. Blogs allow a product or company to provide longer descriptions of products or services, can include testimonials and can link to and from other social network and blog pages. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers, and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages. Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. To allow firms to

91 measure their standing in the corporate world, sites enable employees to place evaluations of their companies. Some businesses opt out of integrating social media platforms into their traditional marketing regimen. There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online. To maintain an advantage in a business-consumer relationship, businesses have to be aware of four key assets that consumers maintain: information, involvement, community, and control.

(i)Tumblr

Dating and friendship website Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, 2012. Rather than relying on simple banner ads, Tumblr requires advertisers to create a Tumblr blog so the content of those blogs can be featured on the site. In one year, four native ad formats were created on web and mobile, and had more than 100 brands advertising on Tumblr with 500 cumulative sponsored posts.

 Ad formats:

 Sponsored mobile pPost – Advertisements (Advertisers' blog posts) will show up on user's Dashboard when the user is on a mobile device such as smartphones and tablets, allowing them to like, reblog, and share the sponsored post.  Sponsored web post – "Largest in-stream ad unit on the web" that catches the users' attention when looking at their Dashboard through their computer or laptop. It also allows the viewers to like, reblog, and share it.  Sponsored radar – Radar picks up exceptional posts from the whole Tumblr community based on their originality and creativity. It is placed on the right side next to the Dashboard, and it typically earns 120 million daily impressions. Sponsored radar allows advertisers to place their posts there to have an opportunity to earn new followers, reblogs, and likes.  Sponsored spotlight – Spotlight is a directory of some of the popular blogs throughout the community and a place where users can find new blogs to follow. Advertisers can choose one category out of fifty categories that they can have their blog listed on there.

 These posts can be one or more of the following: images, photo sets, animated GIFs, video, audio, and text posts. For the users to differentiate the promoted posts to the regular users' posts, the promoted posts have a dollar symbol on the corner. On May 6, 2014, Tumblr announced customization and theming on mobile apps for brands to advertise.

Chapter 5

Consumer Behaviour

Consumer Behaviour: Consumer behavior is the study of how people make decisions about what they buy, want, need, or act in regards to a product, service, or company. Consumer Behaviour is a branch which deals with the various stages a consumer goes through before purchasing products or services for his end use. It is critical to understand consumer behavior to know how potential customers will respond to a new product or service. It also helps companies identify opportunities that are not currently met.

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions. Marketers expect that by understanding what causes the consumers to buy particular goods and services, they will be able to determine—which products are needed in the marketplace, which are obsolete, and how best to present the goods to the consumers.

The study of consumer behaviour assumes that the consumers are actors in the marketplace. The per¬spective of role theory assumes that consumers play various roles in the marketplace. Starting from the information provider, from the user to the payer and to the disposer, consumers play these roles in the decision process.

94 studies of consumer behaviour. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, sports, reference groups, and society in general.

The study of consumer behaviour is concerned with all aspects of purchasing and consumption behavior as well as all persons involved in purchasing decisions and consumption activities. Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field

2.1Types of Consumer Buying Behaviour:

There are four types of consumer buying behavior on the basis of buyer involvement while purchasing any product:

Table 3 :Types of Consumer Behaviour High involvement Low involvement Significant difference Complex buying Variety seeking between brands behavior behavior Few differences Dissonance buying Habitual buying between brands behavior behavior

a) Complex buying behavior:- when the consumer is highly involved in the buying and there is significant differences between brands then it is called complex buying behavior. So in this case the consumer must collect proper information about the product features and the marketer must provide detailed information regarding the product attributes. For e.g. Consumer while buying a motor cycle is highly involved in the purchase and has the knowledge about significant differences between brands. b) Variety seeking behavior: - in this case consumer involvement is low while buying the product but there are significant differences between brands. Consumers generally buy different products not due to dissatisfaction from the earlier product but due to seek variety. Like every time they buy different washing detergent just for variety. So it is the duty of the marketer to

95 encourage the consumer to buy the product by offering them discounts, free samples and by advertising the product a lot. c) Dissonance buying behavior:- here consumer is highly involved in the purchase but there are few differences between brands. Like consumer while buying a floor tiles buy them quickly as there are few differences between brands. d) Habitual buying behavior:- in this case there is low involvement of the consumer and there are few differences between brands. The consumer buys the product quickly. For e.g. Toothpaste.

2.2 Consumer Decision Styles: A number of theorists have argued that certain fundamental decision-making styles can be identified. A decision- making style is defined as a "mental orientation characterizing a consumer's approach to making choices." Sproles and Kendall (1986) developed a consumer style inventory (CSI) consisting of eight factors, such as price- sensitivity, quality-consciousness, brand-consciousness, novelty-seeking, fashion-consciousness and habit. Based on these factors, the authors developed a typology of eight distinct decision-making styles:

 Recreational shoppers: Shoppers who shop just for the fun of it are known as recreational shoppers.  Quality conscious/Perfectionist: Quality-consciousness is characterised by a consumer‘s search for the very best quality in products; quality conscious consumers tend to shop systematically making more comparisons and shopping around.  Brand-conscious: Brand-consciousness is characterised by a tendency to buy expensive, well-known brands or designer labels. Those who score high on brand-consciousness tend to believe that the higher prices are an indicator of quality and exhibit a preference for department stores or top-tier retail outlets.  Recreation-conscious/ Hedonistic: Recreational shopping is characterised by the consumer‘s engagement in the purchase process. Those who score high on recreation-consciousness regard shopping itself as a form of enjoyment.

 Price-conscious: A consumer who exhibits price-and-value consciousness. Price-conscious shoppers carefully shop around seeking lower prices, sales or discounts and are motivated by obtaining the best value for money  Novelty/fashion-conscious: characterised by a consumer‘s tendency to seek out new products or new experiences for the sake of excitement; who gain excitement from seeking new things; they like to keep up-to-date with fashions and trends, variety-seeking is associated with this dimension.  Impulsive: Impulsive consumers are somewhat careless in making purchase decisions, buy on the spur of the moment and are not overly concerned with expenditure levels or obtaining value. Those who score high on impulsive dimensions tend not to be engaged with the object at either a cognitive or emotional level.  Confused (by over-choice): characterised by a consumer‘s confusion caused by too many product choices, too many stores or an overload of product information; tend to experience information overload.  Habitual / brand loyal: characterized by a consumer‘s tendency to follow a routine purchase pattern on each purchase occasion; consumers have favourite brands or stores and have formed habits in choosing, the purchase decision does not involve much evaluation or shopping around.

2.3 Consumer behaviour in online shopping:

Online shopping The phrase ―online consumer behavior‖ describes the process of online shopping from a consumer‘s perspective. It is often described as the study of trends, including the influence of online advertising, consumer willingness to click on links, the prevalence of comparison shopping, among others. The decision-making process of an online consumer is often very different from that of a consumer in a physical store. Companies are increasingly studying online consumer behavior in order to adapt their sales and marketing strategies to appeal to the Internet purchaser. Online sales have increased all over the world, with more and more shoppers looking

97 to the Internet before they head out to malls or other stores. In order to remain competitive, many companies are electing to devote at least some of their marketing capital to the online space. Companies decide many of the finer points of online sales, including advertising strategies, page layout, and ease of website searching by analyzing online consumer behavior.

The field of online consumer behavior can be broad. Most of the time, theories in this field are posited by economists or market analysts who specialize in consumer analysis. Companies hire some consumer analysts on a contract basis to provide tailored advice. Others work for independent market analyst firms, for think tanks, or in academia.

In many respects, the study of online consumer behavior is the study of the intersection between online consumers and online businesses. Analysts look at how consumers respond to various aspects of an online business, and compare the factors that led to a consumer either making a purchase or leaving the website. The consumer psychology of making purchases online is usually a major part of an analyst‘s considerations, and analysts often conduct market segmentation studies based on gender, age, and relative sophistication.

Online consumer behavior can also be forward-looking. Behavior studies can tell businesses how consumers are responding to ads and site layouts, but they can also predict how consumers will respond to other future campaigns or web features. Market analysis in the online space often leads to innovation. Businesses develop new advertising campaigns, and come up with different ways to reach potential purchasers based on behavioral statistics.

Sometimes, the way corporations use behavioral data are straightforward, such as sponsoring links on certain sites or optimizing home pages to appear more readily in search engines. Increasingly, however, market responses are more tailored to the consumer individually. Social networking promotions, interactive homepages, and special offers for subscribers of e-mail or messaging updates are all examples of ways in which online consumer behavior has influenced the modern retail world.

Fig 15: factors influencing online consumer‘s behaviour

Source: Marketing Management by Phillip Kotler2003(extracted 15 Nov 2016)

The basic decision making process in online shopping is similar to brick and mortar shopping. The stages are similar viz: Problem recognition, information search, comparison of alternatives, actual purchase ans post purchase behavior. But as online shopping is done from the confinement of home/office without actually checking the product there are certain factors which have a strong influence on online consumer behaviour. These factors are:

a) Ability to shop at a discounted price b) Flexibility of shopping hours c) Availability of greater variety of products/brands d) Ease of comparing to find lower prices e) Saving the cost of transportation needed to drive to shopping places. f) Convenience of not having to leave the house to shop g) Advertisements and other marketing practices of e-retailing websites

h) Opinions of friend and family i) Prices of products j) Designs of website k) Payments method l) Delivery options m) Return Policy/After sale services

Online shopping continues to gain popularity. Every day more and more people make the leap to buy online. Many businesses wish to capitalize on the momentum in the online retail sector. Thanks to new technology that measures the way consumers behave when they are engaging in commerce activities, retailers are now beginning to understand the various ways that people shop. These consumer insights can provide targeted incentives to those customers, in an attempt to gain their business. There are many different online shopper personality types, or behavioral characteristics of shoppers. Each has certain traits and skillful marketing professionals stress the importance of learning each type in order to design shopping services that are attractive to members of each type or customer segment. Because of the large number of online retailers, online shoppers need to be wooed with an online shopping experience that is tailored to their specific online shopping personality type, so they do not look elsewhere for their purchases.

According to Corin Birchall, following is a list of some of the most common Online Shopping Personality Types, based on consumer research of online shoppers, in no particular order:

Recreational Shoppers: Recreational shoppers are all over the place. They flit from one website to another very quickly, and only stop when a truly significant deal catches their eye. You have to really come up with something eye-catching if you hope to catch these customers. These are customers that like to click on ‗similar product‘ links, and that are likely to spend a great deal of time at online retail store if it presents enough engaging content to keep them there.

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Deal Hunters: Deal hunters are in search of the holy grail of deals. They purchase items used or refurbished if it will get them a better deal. These are customers who might buy an item they don‘t actually need if you present them with a good enough deal for it. Deal hunters are also often on the lookout for free shipping deals. Many deal hunters refuse to make purchases at online stores that do not offer free shipping if they can find a competing online store that offers the same product with free shipping.

The Flitter: These shoppers can be ‗the fish that got away‘ if you are not careful. One way to keep them shopping is to ensure that the shopping cart on your website remains active for a long time, so that if they are in another window and forget that they are in the middle of a transaction, they can simply return and finish it. If the shopping cart at online retail store times out and the items are no longer there, the customer is less likely to re-add the items to the cart and purchase them.

The Researcher: Researchers love to learn everything they can about a product before purchasing it online. They may watch a product for a while on various websites, to see what the average price is, so that they can know for sure when they are presented with a price whether or not it is a good deal. Researchers also enjoy reading reviews from other customers, and regularly rely on ratings and reviews when deciding what to purchase online.

Impatient Shoppers: Impatient shoppers will not stick around if your checkout process is lengthy and complicated. They do not want to waste time signing up for an account, they want to buy their items immediately, and if you cannot provide them with immediate checkout, they will go to another website that will. To capture this type of online shopper, it is necessary e that website loads quickly, and that checkout process is as streamlined as possible.

Rewards Shoppers: Many online shoppers like to patronize the same online retail stores repeatedly. These brand loyalists enjoy customer loyalty programs that give rewards or points for purchases, and love to take part in deals and promotions that make them feel like they are working towards a goal with their purchases. Rewards shoppers enjoy taking part in SMS Text

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Message Marketing campaigns, where they can receive messages about sales and specials they qualify for send directly to their personal mobile devices.

Hipsters: Some online shoppers only purchase high end retail brands. These customers will purchase these brands from various sellers, but only buy the very best and premium brand names, and also generally wish to purchase the latest and newest models of items. Retailers will find that these customers are willing to spend a great deal of money in order to get top of the line items that are hot, fresh, and in style.

Day Dreamers: Some people really love to make wish lists. This type of shopper will typically have wish lists at several online retail stores, and enjoys dreaming about their ideal purchases, but needs a push in order to actualize the transaction. One can convince them to purchase by lowering the price of items on their wish list, so that they can‘t help but take advantage of the savings retailers are offering.

Intrepid Explorers: Some online shoppers are after one thing, and only one thing. Those shoppers will not purchase anything else and will not deviate from their quest for the specific item until they find it. Once they find the product they are looking for, they may reward you by purchasing additional items from your online store because they are so happy that they found what they are looking for. This type of shopper typically enjoys websites that have search functionality, or site maps that can make it easy to pinpoint the item they are seeking.

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Chapter 6 E-Retailing

E-Retailing: The fast development of telecommunications technology in the past few decades has changed many aspects of consumers‘ lives, including their purchasing process. Consumers are often turning to e-commerce or electronic commerce, namely the buying and selling of products and services exclusively through electronic channels. The most well-known form of e- commerce is online shopping, also known as business to consumer e- commerce (B2C), where private customers can order various products which they then receive by courier or postal mail. Another category of e-commerce focuses on transactions between companies, called business to business e- commerce (B2B). The third category of e-commerce involves transactions from consumer to consumer (C2C), as in the example of eBay or other similar websites. As a result of extensive use of mobile phone e-retailing sector has seen an unprecedented growth.

Fig 16: Mobile share of online retail sales in India in 2014 and 2015

Source: ASSOCHAM, PwC© Statista2016 ( extracted on 20 Jan 2017)

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Report of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) 2016 about e-retail sector in India:

The Indian e-commerce industry is likely to clock a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35 per cent and cross the $100-billion mark in value over the next five years, a study conducted by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) along with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has said.

Additionally, with improvement in infrastructure such as logistics, broadband and internet-ready devices, there is likely to be a significant increase in the number of consumers making purchases online, the study said. It estimates around 65 million consumers in India to buy online in 2016, as against around 40 million in 2014.

As per the study titled ―Evolution of e-commerce in India - Creating the bricks behind the clicks‖, With nearly one-third of internet users already making purchases online, the e-commerce growth will rely more on increased spending from existing buyers than first-time online buyers

While there have been concerns over steep discounting by e-tailers, the study said, these flash sales and daily deals have played a major role in contributing to the growth of e-commerce. The increasing adoption of smartphones and tablet consumers has also aided to the e-commerce growth.

The report says that the steady growth in the number of web shoppers is helping to boost e-commerce sales. Many consumers will prefer the web to bricks-and-mortar retailers in large part because of online deals, about 52 per cent of shoppers said they made purchases online rather than in stores because online retailers offered better deals.

Among popular shopping categories, the study showed that apparel sales capture the biggest share of Indian e-commerce retail, along with computer and consumer electronics. The two categories are likely to continue fueling the market in the future as well. Computer and consumer electronics and apparel and accessories are together estimated to account for 42 per cent of total retail e-commerce. Travel and tourism are also fast growing segments

104 with as much as 75 per cent of the total industry having migrated to online commerce. Among other things, a major portion of services such as air, train, bus, movie ticket bookings, hotel reservation and tour packages have moved to the internet.

The report added that between 2017 and 2020, the e-commerce industry could spend around 2-6 per cent of the revenue on warehousing and sortation centers, which would translate to $450-900 million.

The industry is expected to spend an additional $500-1,000 million in the same period on logistics functions, leading to a cumulative spend of $950- 1,900 million till 2017-2020 as per the report.

On the employment front, the report estimated the e-commerce industry to employ an additional 100,000 people in warehousing and logistics, over the around 25,000 persons working in the segment currently.

The e-commerce industry in the country is likely to be worth USD 38 billion by 2016, a 67 per cent jump over the USD 23 billion revenues for 2015, as per industry body Assocham. India‘s e-commerce market was worth about USD 3.8 billion in 2009, it went up to USD 17 billion in 2014 and to USD 23 billion in 2015 and is expected to touch whopping USD 38 billion mark by 2016.

Increasing internet and mobile penetration, growing acceptability of online payments and favourable demographics has provided the e-commerce sector in India the unique opportunity to companies connect with their customers, it said. There would be over a five to seven fold increase in revenue generated through e-commerce as compared to last year with all branded apparel, accessories, jewellery, gifts, footwear are available at a cheaper rates and delivered at the doorstep, it added.

It noted that the the buying trends during 2016 will witness a significant upward movement due to aggressive online discounts, rising fuel price and wider and abundant choice will hit the e-commerce industry in 2016. It observed mobile commerce (m-commerce) is growing rapidly as a stable and secure supplement to the e-commerce industry.

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Shopping online through smart phones is proving to be a game changer, and industry leaders believe that m-commerce could contribute up to 70 per cent of their total revenues, as per the statement by ASSOCHAM. In India roughly 60-65 per cent of the total e-commerce sales are being generated by mobile devices and tablets.

It noted that the browsing trends, which have broadly shifted from the desktop to mobile devices in India, online shopping is also expected to follow suit, as one out of three customers currently makes transactions through mobiles in tier-1 and tier-2 cities. In 2015, 78 per cent of shopping queries were made through mobile devices, compared to 46 per cent in 2013.

In 2015, the highest growth rate was seen in the apparel segment almost 69.5 per cent over last year, followed by electronic items by 62 percent, baby care products at 53 per cent, beauty and personal care products at 52 per cent and home furnishings at 49 per cent. It revealed that Mumbai ranks first in online shopping followed by Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata.

On the mode of payment, almost 45 per cent of online shoppers reportedly preferred cash on delivery mode of payment over credit cards (16 per cent) and debit cards (21 per cent). Only 10 per cent opted for internet banking and a scanty 7 per cent preferred cash cards, mobile wallets, and other such modes of payment, it said. Among the above age segments, 18-25 years of age group has been the fastest growing age segment online with user growth being contributed by both male and female segments.

The survey revealed that 38 per cent of regular shoppers are in 18-25 age group, 52 per cent in 26-35, 8 per cent in 36-45 and 2 per cent in the age group of 45-60. Almost 65 per cent of online shoppers are male as against 35 per cent female.

Top e-tailing companies of India: Following Is a List Of Top Online Shopping Sites In India on the basis of their revenue and customer base

1) Flipkart.com 2) Amazon.in 3) Snapdeal.com

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4) Jabong.com 5) Myntra.com 6) Homeshop18.com 7) Shopsclue.com 8) Firstcry.com 9) Netmed.com 10) Fabfurnish.com

Fig 17: Growth of e-retailing in India:

Source: DMO© Statista 20 Nov 2016

As per an article in ―The Pioneer‖ published on Feb 6, 2016 e-commerce is to generate 2.5 lakh jobs in 2016 as the hiring of the sector is expected to grow at 60-65% including temporary employees, supply chain, logistics etc. At present there are nearly 3.5 lakh employees working under e-commerce in various capacities. Presently mobile commerce represents only 20-25% of country‘s e-commerce market but with increasing smartphone ownership and investment from retailers this share is expected to grow. It is also likely to further accelerate by advancement in mobile technology, improvement in security and connectivity of payment and shopping platforms. According to ASSOCHAM m-commerce is growing as a stable and secure supplement to the e-commerce industry. As per the report, one third of MBA students from

107 top business schools like IIMs preferring working for the fledging e-commerce sector over traditional favourites like consulting and financial services jobs. The rapid transformation in logistics, innovation, consumerism and productivity in e-retail sector prove to be an interesting case study for other emerging economies.

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Chapter 7 Data Analysis

The data was analyzed in SPSS version 21 using different statistical tools viz: 1. Frequency Table With percentages 2. Chi-Square Test 3. Rank Order Table 4. Binomial test 5. Kruskal-Wallis test

The raw data has been collected from primary source i.e. with the help of questionnaire which consists of the question referring to different aspects of consumer behavior and impact of social media.

Tabulation and Statistical Analysis of Data The data collected from questionnaire were scored and tabulated into master data sheet. The data was analyzed with the help of statistical package SPSS 17. The mean scores arrived are put to various statistical analysis using various statistical tools in order to test the research hypothesis. The statistical tools applied included Chi-Square test, binomial test, Rank Order Co-efficients etc. Descriptive Analysis: A thorough description and analysis of the data collected is done and associated tables and details are provided. Inferential Analysis: An exclusive analysis is done in order to test hypothesis and meet objectives of research. The essence of analysis is presented in this chapter.

Objective 1: To identify the impact of social media marketing strategies of e- retailing companies on the buying behavior of customers.

Hypothesis 1:

H01: Social media marketing strategies of e-retailers have no significant impact on buying behavior of customers.

H11: Social media marketing strategies of e-retailers have a significant impact on buying behavior of customers.

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Associated Questions: Section B Q.15(c), (d),(e),(f),(g). Q. 16,17,19, 29,31

Table 4: Agreement level of respondents on the statements about the impact of social media marketing on buying behavior

Strongly Strongly disagree Disagree Uncertain Agree agree Row N Row N Row N Row N Row N Count % Count % Count % Count % Count % Q 4 1.0% 24 5.9% 130 31.8% 243 59.4% 8 2.0% 15c Q 0 .0% 22 5.5% 24 6.0% 356 88.6% 0 .0% 15d Q 8 2.0% 38 9.3% 103 25.2% 233 57.0% 27 6.6% 15e Q 15f 0 .0% 16 3.9% 56 13.7% 317 77.5% 20 4.9% Q 0 .0% 15 3.7% 0 .0% 237 57.9% 157 38.4% 15g

Table5. Binomial Test Results: ―Impact of SMM‖

Observed Category N Prop. Test Prop. p-value Q 15c Group 1 <= 3 158 .39 .50 .000a Group 2 > 3 251 .61 Total 409 1.00 Q 15d Group 1 <= 3 46 .11 .50 .000a Group 2 > 3 356 .89 Total 402 1.00 Q 15e Group 1 <= 3 149 .36 .50 .000a Group 2 > 3 260 .64 Total 409 1.00 Q 15f Group 1 <= 3 72 .18 .50 .000a Group 2 > 3 337 .82 Total 409 1.00 Q 15g Group 1 <= 3 15 .04 .50 .000a Group 2 > 3 394 .96 Total 409 1.00

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Based on Z Approximation.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the binomial test is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the proportion of the respondents responding positively (strongly agree + agree) for the parameters is more than that of 50% and hence more than that of negative response. Therefore, we reject null hypothesis and conclude that the Social media marketing strategies of e-retailers have a significant impact on buying behavior of customers.

Table 6: Structural Equation Model to analyse ―impact of SMM‖

Model Description Calculated value Expected value for good fit CFI Comparative Fit 0.702 A: 0=poor fit close Index to 1=very good fit B: CFI >.95: good fit, CFI > 0.60: moderate fit

Model fit parameters: Good fit

The model fit parameters indicates that the structural equation model is showing the moderate fit on the basis of some of the parameters above and few of them shows weak fit. Thus we can conclude that the SEM is showing acceptable fit for the current model.

Analysis of question no.31

Table7. responses to rate social media as a marketing tool

Observed N Expected N Residual Extremely Ineffective 15 81.8 -66.8 Ineffective 38 81.8 -43.8 Moderately Effective 58 81.8 -23.8 Effective 247 81.8 165.2 Extremely Effective 51 81.8 -30.8 Total 409

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Table 8 Chi-Square test result to analyse responses to rate SM as a marketing tool

Value Chi-Square 430.156 Df 4 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that respondents finds social networking extremely effective. The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.All statistical tests satisfactorily prove that social media marketing has a significant impact on buying behaviour of consumers. As value of p is less than 0.005 that means null hypothesis is rejected and alternative hypothesis is accepted.

Analysis of Q. 16.

Table 9. Response on whether advertisements by e-retailing companies posted on social networking accounts motivate respondents to visit the particular website

Observed N Expected N Residual Yes 377 204.5 172.5 No 32 204.5 -172.5 Total 409

Table 10. Chi-Square test to analyse the capacity of advertisements by e-retailing companies on social media to motivate the customers to visit a particular site.

Value Chi-Square 291.015 Df 1 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of0.05 indicates that the respondents are significantly motivated to visit the particular website by the advertisements by e-retailing companies posted on your social networking.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

112

Analysis of Q.17:

Table 11: Responses on whether the respondents login to e-retailers website via their social media account

Observed N Expected N Residual Almost always 20 136.3 -116.3 Often 257 136.3 120.7 Some times 132 136.3 -4.3 Total 409

Table 12 Chi-Square test for analyzing responses on whether the respondents login to e-retailers website via their social media account

Value Chi-Square 206.205 Df 2 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondents areuse their social networking account to log into other retailing website.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Analysis of Q.19:

Table 13: reason of purchasing from e-retailers via social media account

Read on-line review or blog about 38 133.7 -98.7 that particular product Viewed the advertisement of the 38 133.7 -98.7 product on social networking site Both 333 133.7 197.3 Total 409

113

Table 14:Chi-Square test to analyse the responses on reason of purchasing from e-retailers via social media account

Values Chi Square 425.55 Df 2 p-value .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondents Read on-line review or blog about that particular product and viewed the advertisement of the product on social networking site. The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Analysis of Q. 28:

Table 15: Level of agreement on the statement that respondents had no plan of purchasing anything but end up purchasing a product on seeing advertisement on social media

Observed N Expected N Residual Strongly disagree 15 100.5 -85.5 Disagree 24 100.5 -76.5 Uncertain 75 100.5 -25.5 Agree 288 100.5 187.5 Total 402

Table 16: Chi-Square test to analyse the response that respondents end up purchasing a product on seeing advertisement on social media although there was no prior plan

Value Chi-Square 487.254 Df 3 p-value. .000 Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that respondents do agree that they end up buying product after watching an advertisement on social media although they did not have any plan of buying on logging into the social networking site. The higher positive residual indicates

114 significantly positive responses for that category which is maximum for ‗agree‘ category. Hence the Analysis of all questions prove that null hypothesis is rejected and alternate hypothesis is accepted

Objective 2: To analyse the effectiveness of different social media tools. Associated Questions: Q.13, Q. 30

Table 17: percentage of respondents using different social media websites

Count Percentage Facebook 409 99.27 Google+ 182 44.17 Linkedin 260 63.11 Twitter 184 44.66 Blogs 67 16.26 Pitrest 30 7.28 My Space 0 0.00 Others 30 7.28

Fig 19: bar chart for percentage of respondents using different social media sites

Percentage

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 Percentage 30 20 10 0

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Table 18 Marascuillo procedure to compare more than two proportions of use of different social media websites: A difference is statistically significant if its value exceeds the critical range value.

value Critical range Interpretation Facebook Google+ 0.55 0.08 Significant Linkedin 0.36 0.08 Significant Twitter 0.55 0.08 Significant Blogs 0.83 0.06 Significant Pitrest 0.92 0.04 Significant My Space 0.99 0.02 Significant Others 0.92 0.04 Significant Google+ Linkedin 0.19 0.11 Significant Twitter 0.00 0.11 NS Blogs 0.28 0.09 Significant Pitrest 0.37 0.09 Significant My Space 0.44 0.08 Significant Others 0.37 0.09 Significant Linkedin Twitter 0.19 0.11 Significant Blogs 0.47 0.09 Significant Pitrest 0.56 0.08 Significant My Space 0.63 0.07 Significant Others 0.56 0.08 Significant Twitter Blogs 0.28 0.09 Significant Pitrest 0.37 0.09 Significant My Space 0.44 0.08 Significant Others 0.37 0.09 Significant Blogs Pitrest 0.09 0.07 Significant My Space 0.16 0.06 Significant Others 0.09 0.07 Significant Pitrest My Space 0.07 0.04 Significant Others 0.00 0.06 NS My Space Others 0.07 0.04 Significant

116

Interpretation: All the social media sites are not equally used but some sites are used more frequently for having account. The Facebook is observed to be highly used social networking site.

Analysis of Q.30:

Table 19: Table on whether the ads on given SNSs are attractive and appealing

Observed N Expected N Residual Facebook 171 20.1 150.9 YouTube 8 20.1 -12.1

Observed N Expected N Residual 12 35 20.1 14.9 13 36 20.1 15.9 14 16 20.1 -4.1 15 46 20.1 25.9 16 8 20.1 -12.1 17 4 20.1 -16.1 123 12 20.1 -8.1 125 12 20.1 -8.1 126 4 20.1 -16.1 127 4 20.1 -16.1 134 4 20.1 -16.1 1234 8 20.1 -12.1 1235 4 20.1 -16.1 1245 8 20.1 -12.1 1256 7 20.1 -13.1 1267 4 20.1 -16.1 1346 7 20.1 -13.1 123457 4 20.1 -16.1 Total 402

117

Table 20: Table on whether the offers and images on given Social Networking Sites are genuine and correlate to actual product.

Observed N Expected N Residual

Facebook 200 22.8 177.2

YouTube 16 22.8 -6.8

12 38 22.8 15.2

13 46 22.8 23.2

14 8 22.8 -14.8

15 28 22.8 5.2

16 8 22.8 -14.8

17 6 22.8 -16.8

34 7 22.8 -15.8

123 4 22.8 -18.8

125 20 22.8 -2.8

126 4 22.8 -18.8

127 4 22.8 -18.8

134 4 22.8 -18.8

1234 8 22.8 -14.8

1267 4 22.8 -18.8

123457 4 22.8 -18.8

Total 409

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Table 21: Table regarding respondent‘s intention of future purchase after seeing advertisement on given SMNs

Observed N Expected N Residual

Facebook 200 22.4 177.6

12 40 22.4 17.6

13 36 22.4 13.6

14 16 22.4 -6.4

15 43 22.4 20.6

16 8 22.4 -14.4

17 4 22.4 -18.4

123 4 22.4 -18.4

125 12 22.4 -10.4

126 4 22.4 -18.4

127 4 22.4 -18.4

134 4 22.4 -18.4

156 7 22.4 -15.4

1234 8 22.4 -14.4

1245 8 22.4 -14.4

1267 4 22.4 -18.4

123457 4 22.4 -18.4

Total 406

Interpretation: when the responses of Q.30(a),(b) and (c ) are analysed it has been observed that majority of people gave positive response for facebook which means they consider facebook as most effective tool for social media marketing.

119

Objective 3. To study the demographic profile of customers who purchase products online from e-retailers.

Hypothesis:

H02: The effectiveness of social media marketing does not differ between genders

H12: The effectiveness of social media marketing differ significantly between genders

Table 22:Basic data distribution according to Gender:

No. of respondent Percentage

Male 219 53.6%

Female 190 46.4%

Fig 20: Pie chart for gender distribution(based on Own Analysis)

No. of respondent

Female 46% Male 54%

Table 22-38 : Tables showing relationship between gender of respondents and effectiveness of marketing via social media

120

Table 23: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether they are frequent users of social media

Gender Male Female Total Q 15a Disagree 5 3 8 Agree 126 109 235 Strongly agree 91 75 166 Total 222 187 409

Table 24: Chi-Square Tests to analyse the relationship between gender and use of social media

Chi-Square Tests Value Df P-value Pearson Chi-Square .108a 2 .948 Likelihood Ratio .108 2 .948 Linear-by-Linear Association .107 1 .743 N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15a is independent of gender.

Q 15b * Gender Table 25: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands

Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15b Uncertain 41 19 60 Agree 159 159 318 Strongly agree 16 8 24 Total 216 186 402

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Table 26: Chi Square Test for analyzing the relationship between gender and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 8.542a 2 .014 Likelihood Ratio 8.735 2 .013 Linear-by-Linear Association 1.589 1 .207 N of Valid Cases 402 a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 11.10.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15b varies with gender. Although majority of both male and female gave positive reply to the statement but more number of women are strongly agree that they are more informed about brands due to social media whereas more men are uncertain in response to the statement.

Q 15c * Gender

Table 27: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media

Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15c Strongly disagree 0 4 4 Disagree 13 11 24 Uncertain 75 54 129 Agree 127 116 243 Strongly agree 4 5 9 Total 219 190 409

122

Table 28: Chi Square test to analyse relationship between gender and ability of social media to extract response from customers Chi-Square Tests Value Df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 5.890a 4 .208 Likelihood Ratio 7.416 4 .115 Linear-by-Linear Association .001 1 .970 N of Valid Cases 409 a. 4 cells (40.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.85.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15c is independent of gender.

Q 15d * Gender

Table 29: level of agreement of respondents (gender- wise) with the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use. Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15d Strongly disagree 5 3 8 Disagree 25 12 37 Uncertain 56 45 101 Agree 115 114 229 Strongly agree 15 12 27 Total 216 186 402

Table 30: Chi-Square test to analyse the relationship between gender and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 4.389a 4 .356 Likelihood Ratio 4.470 4 .346 Linear-by-Linear Association 2.697 1 .101 N of Valid Cases 402

123

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15e is independent of gender.

Q 15e * Gender Table 31: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media

Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15e Disagree 10 11 21 Uncertain 30 8 38 Agree 182 168 350 Total 222 187 409

Table 32: Chi-Square test for relationship between gender and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media Chi-Square Tests Value Df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 10.426 2 .005 Likelihood Ratio 11.175 2 .004 Linear-by-Linear Association 1.635 1 .201 N of Valid Cases 409 a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 9.73.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15e is not independent of gender. More male are agreed to the statement they are more likely to purchase a product like mobile phone and game prior to its launch which has been extensively promoted on social media.

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Q 15f * Gender

Table 33: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15f Disagree 14 2 16 Uncertain 27 27 54 Agree 162 150 312 Strongly agree 13 7 20 Total 216 186 402

Table 34: chi-square test for analyzing relationship between gender and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers Chi-Square Tests Value Df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 9.073a 3 .028 Likelihood Ratio 10.173 3 .017 Linear-by-Linear Association 1.348 1 .246 N of Valid Cases 402 a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 7.40.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15f is not independent of gender but changes with gender. A greater percentage of male strongly agree to the statement that social media is a more effective two way communication between respondents and e-retailers.

125

Q 15g * Gender

Table 35: level of agreement of respondents(gender- wise) with the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q 15g Disagree 11 3 14 Agree 127 107 234 Strongly agree 78 76 154 Total 216 186 402

Table 36: chi-square test for analyzing the relationship between gender and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 4.091a 2 .129 Likelihood Ratio 4.356 2 .113 Linear-by-Linear Association 3.222 1 .073 N of Valid Cases 402 a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 6.48.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15g is independent of gender. That means both male and females have equal probability to agree to the statement that social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

126

Q_31 * Gender

Table 37: Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing for E-Retailers.

Crosstab Count Gender Male Female Total Q_31 Extremely Ineffective 10 12 22 Ineffective 15 13 28 Moderately Effective 37 18 55 Effective 129 119 248 Extremely Effective 31 24 55 Total 222 187 409

Table 38: Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between gender and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool Chi-Square Tests Value Df P-value Pearson Chi-Square 5.045 4 .283 Likelihood Ratio 5.142 4 .273 Linear-by-Linear Association .002 1 .969 N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of0.05 indicates that the response to the effectivity is independent of gender.

As the value of p in most of the questions in this analysis is greater than 0.05 it means that null hypothesis is accepted and alternate hypothesis is rejected.

H03: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and education of respondent.

H13: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and education of respondent.

Tables 38-54: Tables showing relationship between gender of respondents and effectiveness of marketing via social media

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Table 39 Basic data distribution according to education

No. of respondent Percentage Up to graduation 74 18.09% Graduation 183 44.74% post-graduation 145 35.45% Ph. D. 7 1.7% Post doctorate 0 .0%

Fig 21: pie chart for number of respondents as per education (Own Analysis)

No. of respondent 2%0% 18% Up to graduation 35% Graduation post-graduation 45% Ph. D. Post doctorate

Table 40: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether respondents are frequent users of social media ( Q 15a * Education)

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15a Disagree 2 2 2 1 7

Agree 36 113 83 6 238

Strongly 35 68 60 1 164 agree

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 41: Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between education and frequency of use of social media

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 11.286a 6 .080

Likelihood Ratio 8.615 6 .196

Linear-by-Linear Association 1.109 1 .292

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 6 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .14.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15a is independent of education.

Q 15b * Education

Table 42: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands.

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15b Uncertain 9 30 20 3 62

Agree 59 141 118 5 323

Strongly 5 12 7 0 24 agree

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 43:Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between education and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 4.886a 6 .559

Likelihood Ratio 4.635 6 .591

Linear-by-Linear Association .997 1 .318

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 3 cells (25.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .47.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15b is independent of education.

Q 15c * Education

Table 44: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15c Strongly 1 1 1 1 4 disagree

Disagree 7 10 7 0 24

Uncertain 21 53 54 2 130

Agree 43 117 79 4 243

Strongly agree 1 2 4 1 8

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 45: Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between education and ability of social media to extract response from customers

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 23.293a 12 .025

Likelihood Ratio 13.500 12 .334

Linear-by-Linear Association .013 1 .911

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 12 cells (60.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .08.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15c is not independent of education. Graduates are more likely to respond positively to social media marketing than traditional marketing.

Q 15d * Education

Table 46: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15d Disagree 5 10 6 1 22

Uncertain 6 7 11 0 24

Agree 62 161 126 7 356

Total 73 178 143 8 402

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Table 47: Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between education and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 4.636a 6 .591

Likelihood Ratio 4.985 6 .546

Linear-by-Linear Association .219 1 .640

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 4 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .44.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15d is independent of education.

Q 15e * Education

Table 48: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15e Strongly 2 5 1 0 8 disagree

Disagree 6 18 13 1 38

Uncertain 19 43 41 0 103

Agree 38 108 80 7 233

Strongly agree 8 9 10 0 27

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 49:Chi-Square Test for relationship between education and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 10.453a 12 .576

Likelihood Ratio 12.987 12 .370

Linear-by-Linear Association .052 1 .819

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 9 cells (45.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .16.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15e is independent of education.

Q 15f * Education

Table 50: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15f Disagree 3 7 6 0 16

Uncertain 7 31 17 1 56

Agree 59 138 113 7 317

Strongly 4 7 9 0 20 agree

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 51: Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between education and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 4.764a 9 .854

Likelihood Ratio 5.483 9 .790

Linear-by-Linear Association .036 1 .849

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 5 cells (31.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .31.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15f is independent of education.

Q 15g * Education

Table 52: Education-wise Responses to the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

Crosstab

Count

Education

Up to Graduatio post- graduation n graduation Ph D Total

Q 15g Disagree 2 7 5 1 15

Agree 40 107 86 4 237

Strongly 31 69 54 3 157 agree

Total 73 183 145 8 409

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Table 53 Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between education and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 2.562a 6 .861

Likelihood Ratio 1.912 6 .928

Linear-by-Linear Association .689 1 .406

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15g is independent of education.

(Q_31 * Education)

Table 54: Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing for E-Retailers as per education of respondent

Crosstab Count Education Up to Graduati post- graduation on graduation Ph D Total Q_31 Extremely 4 5 9 1 19 Ineffective Ineffective 6 10 13 3 32

Moderately 9 31 17 2 59 Effective Effective 42 117 88 4 251

Extremely 14 15 18 1 48 Effective Total 75 178 145 11 409

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Table 55: Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between education and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool

Chi-Square Tests

Value df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 18.406 12 .104

Likelihood Ratio 16.347 12 .176

Linear-by-Linear Association 2.507 1 .113

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the effectivity is independent of education Hence Null hypothesis is accepted that effectiveness of social media Marketing is independent of education.

H04: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and income of respondent.

H14: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and income of respondent.

Table 56: basic data distribution according to income of respondents

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Fig 22: Pie chart for number of respondents as per Income( Own Analysis)

Q 31: Income

Table 57: Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing for E-Retailers as per income of respondent

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 1 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q_31 Extremely 2 9 5 2 1 19 Ineffective

Ineffective 5 9 15 3 1 33

Moderately 3 29 23 2 2 59 Effective

Effective 34 113 87 10 4 248

Extremely 9 23 16 2 0 50 Effective

Total 53 183 146 19 8 409

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Table 58: Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between income and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 14.726 16 .545

Likelihood Ratio 15.663 16 .477

Linear-by-Linear Association 5.239 1 .022

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 11 cells (44.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .15.As the value of p is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is accepted i.e. effect of social media marketing is independent of income.

Q 15a * Income

Table 59: income-wise Responses to the statement whether respondents are frequent users of social media

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15a Disagree 0 3 2 1 1 7

Agree 35 99 89 10 2 235

Strongly 16 84 54 5 1 160 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

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Table 60 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between income and frequency of use of social media

Value df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 20.394a 8 .009

Likelihood Ratio 11.633 8 .168

Linear-by-Linear Association 2.057 1 .152

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 7 cells (46.7%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .07. As the value of p is less than 0.05 the null hypothesis is rejected and alternate hypothesis is accepted. Although 98% respondents give positive response to the statement that they are frequent users of social media but highest number of respondents from income group 5-10 lac are strongly agreed to the statement.

Q 15b * Income

Table 61: Income-wise Responses to the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands.

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lacs lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15b Uncertain 5 25 27 3 1 61

Agree 46 150 106 13 3 318

Strongly 0 11 12 0 0 23 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

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Table 62: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between income and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 10.117a 8 .257

Likelihood Ratio 13.985 8 .082

Linear-by-Linear Association .711 1 .399

N of Valid Cases 402

6 cells (40.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .23. As the value of p is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is accepted i.e. effect of social media marketing is independent of income.

Q 15c * Income

Table 63: Income-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15c Strongly 2 1 1 0 0 4 disagree

Disagree 4 11 9 0 0 24

Uncertain 23 62 37 3 0 125

Agree 22 108 94 13 4 241

Strongly 0 4 4 0 0 8 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

140

Table 64: Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between income and ability of social media to extract response from customers

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 20.858a 16 .184

Likelihood Ratio 22.808 16 .119

Linear-by-Linear Association 12.294 1 .000

N of Valid Cases 402

16 cells (64.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .04. As the value of p is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is accepted i.e. effect of social media marketing is independent of income.

Q 15d * Income

Table 65: Income-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15d Disagre 0 11 10 1 2 24 e

Uncertai 0 12 14 0 0 26 n

Agree 50 161 125 14 2 352

Total 50 184 149 15 4 402

141

Table 66: Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between income and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 24.200a 8 .002

Likelihood Ratio 22.121 8 .005

Linear-by-Linear Association 7.023 1 .008

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 7 cells (46.7%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .22. As value of p is less than 0.05 it shows a positive association between income and effect of social media. 100% respondents of income group of less than one lakh agree to the statement that they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use

Table 67: income-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media(Q 15e * Income)

Crosstab

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15e Strongly 0 5 3 0 0 8 disagree

Disagree 0 19 15 2 2 38

Uncertain 24 44 30 2 2 102

Agree 26 106 88 10 0 230

Strongly 1 12 9 2 0 24 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

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Table 68: Chi-Square Test for relationship between income and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media.

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 32.829a 16 .008

Likelihood Ratio 36.400 16 .003

Linear-by-Linear Association .021 1 .884

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 14 cells (56.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .08.

Q 15f * Income

Table 69: income-wise Responses to the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer.

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15f Disagree 0 9 7 0 0 16

Uncertain 5 25 19 4 1 54

Agree 42 147 109 12 3 313

Strongly 4 5 10 0 0 19 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

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Table 70: Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between income and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 11.330a 12 .501

Likelihood Ratio 14.654 12 .261

Linear-by-Linear Association 1.282 1 .258

N of Valid Cases 402

9 cells (45.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .16.

Interpretation: As the value of p is greater than 0.05 the null hypothesis is accepted i.e. effect of social media marketing is independent of income.

Q 15g * Income Table 71: income-wise Responses to the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

Crosstab

Count

Income

less than 1 1 to 5 5 to 10 10 to 15 Above 15 lac lacs lacs lacs lacs Total

Q 15g Disagree 0 11 2 1 1 15

Agree 24 102 97 10 1 234

Strongly 27 73 46 5 2 153 agree

Total 51 186 145 16 4 402

144

Table 72: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between income and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

Value Df Asymp. Sig. (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 20.600a 8 .008

Likelihood Ratio 20.009 8 .010

Linear-by-Linear Association 4.143 1 .042

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 5 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .15.

As the value of p is less than 0.05 the null hypothesis is rejected. Respondents agree to the statement that information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer.

Conclusion: As most of the analysis of responses to the questions have p>0.05 it means null hypothesis is accepted and alternate hypothesis is rejected which proves that there is no association between income and effectiveness of Social media

H05: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and occupation of respondent.

H15: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and occupation of respondent.

Table73: basic data distribution according to occupation of respondents

No. of respondent Percentage

Service 187 45.4%

Self Employed 81 19.7%

Business 123 29.9%

Others 21 5.1%

145

Fig 23: Pie chart for number of respondents as per Occupation

No. of respondent 5% Service 30% 45% Self Employed

20% Business Others

Q 15a * Occupation Table 74: occupation-wise Responses to the statement whether respondents are frequent users of social media

Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15a Disagree 4 2 1 0 7

Agree 107 43 78 10 238

Strongly 75 35 43 11 164 agree

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 75: Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between occupation and frequency of use of social media

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 4.582a 6 .598

Likelihood Ratio 4.990 6 .545

Linear-by-Linear Association .126 1 .722

N of Valid Cases 409

146 a. 4 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .36.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15a is independent of occupation.

Q 15b * Occupation

Table 76: occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands

Crosstab

Count

Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15b Uncertain 26 11 21 4 62

Agree 151 63 95 14 323

Strongly 9 6 6 3 24 agree

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 77: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between occupation and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 4.784a 6 .572

Likelihood Ratio 4.054 6 .669

Linear-by-Linear Association .053 1 .818

N of Valid Cases 409

147 a. 3 cells (25.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.23.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15b is independent of occupation.

Q 15c * Occupation

Table 78: occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media

Crosstab

Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15c Strongly 2 0 2 0 4 disagree

Disagree 14 6 2 2 24

Uncertain 54 26 42 8 130

Agree 110 47 75 11 243

Strongly agree 6 1 1 0 8

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 79: Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between occupation and ability of social media to extract response from customers

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 11.194a 12 .512

Likelihood Ratio 13.820 12 .312

Linear-by-Linear Association .043 1 .836

N of Valid Cases 409

148 a. 10 cells (50.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .21.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15c is independent of occupation.

Q 15d * Occupation

Table 80: occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use

Crosstab

Count

Occupation

Service Self Employed Business Others Total

Q 15d Disagree 10 8 3 1 22

Uncertain 16 2 6 0 24

Agree 156 68 112 20 356

Total 182 78 121 21 402

Table 81: Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between occupation and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 11.173a 6 .083

Likelihood Ratio 12.380 6 .054

Linear-by-Linear Association 2.912 1 .088

N of Valid Cases 402 a. 4 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.15.

149

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15d is independent of occupation.

Q 15e * Occupation

Table 82: occupation-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media

Crosstab

Count Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15e Strongly 4 2 1 1 8 disagree

Disagree 18 9 11 0 38

Uncertain 46 22 29 6 103

Agree 104 41 77 11 233

Strongly agree 14 6 4 3 27

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 83: Chi-Square Test for relationship between occupation and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 10.147a 12 .603

Likelihood Ratio 12.013 12 .445

Linear-by-Linear Association .273 1 .601

N of Valid Cases 409

150 a. 6 cells (30.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .41.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15e is independent of occupation.

Q 15f * Occupation

Table 84: occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer

Count

Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15f Disagree 10 1 5 0 16

Uncertain 23 17 14 2 56

Agree 150 56 94 17 317

Strongly 3 6 9 2 20 agree

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 85: Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between occupation and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 16.100a 9 .065

Likelihood Ratio 17.819 9 .037

Linear-by-Linear Association 3.695 1 .055

N of Valid Cases 409

151 a. 6 cells (37.5%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .82.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15f is independent of occupation.

Q 15g * Occupation

Table 86: occupation -wise Responses to the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

Crosstab

Count

Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q 15g Disagree 9 3 3 0 15

Agree 107 46 70 14 237

Strongly 70 31 49 7 157 agree

Total 186 80 122 21 409

Table 87: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between occupation and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 2.514a 6 .867

Likelihood Ratio 3.277 6 .773

Linear-by-Linear Association .823 1 .364

N of Valid Cases 409

152

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15g is independent of occupation.

Q_31 * Occupation

Table 88: Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing for E-Retailers as per occupation of respondent

Crosstab

Count Occupation

Self Service Employed Business Others Total

Q_31 Extremely 7 5 6 1 19 Ineffective

Ineffective 14 5 10 3 32

Moderately 24 13 20 2 59 Effective

Effective 117 45 76 13 251

Extremely 18 15 10 5 48 Effective

Total 180 83 122 24 409

Table 89: Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between occupation and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 10.406 12 .580

Likelihood Ratio 9.898 12 .625

Linear-by-Linear Association .191 1 .662

N of Valid Cases 409

153

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the effectivity of SNM is independent of occupation.

H05: There is no association between effect of social media marketing and age of respondent.

H15: There is an association between effect of social media marketing and age of respondent.

Table 90: Basic data distribution according to age:

No. of respondent Percentage 18 to 20 years 8 2.0% 20 to 25 years 109 26.6% 25 to 30 years 165 40.4% 30 to 35 years 102 24.8% 35 to 40 years 25 6.1%

Fig 24: Pie chart for number of respondents as per Age(Own Analysis)

No. of respondent

18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40

6% 2%

27% 25%

40%

154

Q 15a * Age

Table 91 : Age-wise Responses to the statement whether respondents are frequent users of social media

Crosstab Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q Disagree 1 2 4 2 2 11 15a Agree 5 66 91 51 13 226

Strongly agree 5 39 64 46 12 166

Total 11 107 159 99 27 403

Table 92 Chi-Square Test for analysing the relation between Age and frequency of use of social media

Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 7.228a 8 .512

Likelihood Ratio 5.978 8 .650

Linear-by-Linear Association .917 1 .338

N of Valid Cases 403

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15a is independent of age.

Q 15b * Age

155

Table 93: Age -wise Responses to the statement whether availability of social media has made them more informed about brands.

Crosstab Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q Uncertain 3 17 22 20 4 66 15b Agree 7 83 131 73 20 314

Strongly 1 7 12 6 3 29 agree Total 11 107 165 99 27 409

Table 94: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between Age and ability of social media to make respondents more informed about brands

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 4.123a 8 .846

Likelihood Ratio 3.881 8 .868

Linear-by-Linear Association .000 1 .985

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15b is independent of age.

Q 15c * Age

156

Table 95: Age -wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to respond to social media marketing than traditional media

Crosstab Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q 15c Strongly 0 1 1 1 1 4 disagree Disagree 1 9 14 2 3 29

Uncertain 4 36 44 39 9 132

Agree 6 60 94 58 13 231

Strongly 1 2 7 1 2 13 agree Total 12 108 160 101 28 409

Table 96: Chi-Square Test to analyse relationship between Age and ability of social media to extract response from customers

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 15.798a 16 .467

Likelihood Ratio 16.467 16 .421

Linear-by-Linear Association .001 1 .974

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15c is independent of age.

Q 15d * Age

157

Table 97: Age -wise Responses to the statement whether they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased social media use

Crosstab

Count

Age

18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total

Q 15d Disagre 0 7 18 3 2 30 e

Uncerta 4 10 20 4 2 40 in

Agree 8 89 136 85 21 339

Total 8 104 154 92 24 409

Table 98: Chi-Square Test to analyse the relationship between Age and increased exposure to marketing communication due to social media

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 17.274 8 .027

Likelihood Ratio 16.524 8 .035

Linear-by-Linear Association 1.457 1 .227

N of Valid Cases 409 a. 5 cells (33.3%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .42.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15d is independent of age.

Q 15e * Age

158

Table 99: Age-wise Responses to the statement whether they are more likely to purchase a product before launch due to extensive promotion on social media

Crosstab: Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q Strongly 0 3 4 0 2 9 15e disagree Disagree 1 12 13 12 3 41

Uncertain 2 24 44 28 7 105

Agree 8 61 91 52 13 225 Strongly 1 8 8 8 4 29 agree Total 12 108 160 100 29 409

Table 100: Chi-Square Test for relationship between Age and respondent‘s likelihood to purchase product prior to launch as a result of promotion on social media

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 12.188a 16 .731

Likelihood Ratio 13.385 16 .644

Linear-by-Linear Association .196 1 .658

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15e is independent of age.

Q 15f * Age

159

Table 101: Age -wise Responses to the statement whether social media provide effective two way communication between buyer and e-retailer

Crosstab: Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q 15f Disagree 1 7 6 5 2 21

Uncertain 2 12 23 15 6 58

Agree 8 78 125 75 19 305

Strongly 1 11 6 5 1 24 agree Total 12 108 160 100 28 408

Table 102: Chi-Square test for analyzing relationship between Age and ability of social media to serve as an effective two way communication channel between respondents and e-retailers

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 9.057a 12 .698

Likelihood Ratio 8.558 12 .740

Linear-by-Linear Association 1.148 1 .284

N of Valid Cases 408 a. 6 cells (30.0%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .62.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15f is independent of age.

160

Q 15g * Age

Table 103: Age -wise Responses to the statement whether the information spread via social media has lasting impact on perception of customer

Crosstab Count Age 18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total Q Disagree 1 4 9 2 3 19 15g Agree 4 64 91 58 14 231

Strongly 6 41 61 40 11 159 agree Total 11 109 161 100 28 409

Table 104: Chi-Square Test for analyzing the relationship between Age and ability of social media to have a lasting effect on respondent‘s perception

Chi-Square Tests Value df P-value (2-sided) Pearson Chi-Square 6.674a 8 .572

Likelihood Ratio 6.423 8 .600

Linear-by-Linear Association .021 1 .885

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the Q15g is independent of age.

Q_31 * Age

161

Table 105: Table for Rating social media as a means of marketing for E-Retailers as per Age of respondent

Crosstab: Count

Age

18 to 20 20 to 25 25 to 30 30 to 35 35 to 40 years years years years years Total

Q_31 Extremely 0 7 3 1 4 15 Ineffective

Ineffective 3 7 22 6 0 38

Moderately 1 12 34 14 3 64 Effective

Effective 5 63 105 57 17 247

Extremely 1 10 18 14 2 45 Effective

Total 10 99 152 92 26 409

Table 106: Chi-square test for analyzing relationship between Age and effectiveness of social media as a marketing tool

Value Df P-value

Pearson Chi-Square 31.868 16 .010

Likelihood Ratio 29.024 16 .024

Linear-by-Linear Association .964 1 .326

N of Valid Cases 409

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is greater than that of 0.05 indicates that the response to the SNM effectivity is independent of age.

162

Objective 4: To study on-line purchasing behavior of customers of age group 18- 40 years in Navi Mumbai.

(a) To study average expenditure and frequency of purchase of online shopping. (b) To analyse the online retail websites surfing behavior. (c) To identify the most frequently purchased products. (d) To analyze online research by customer for different categories of product.

(a) To study average expenditure and frequency of purchase of online shopping.

Table 107: Online shopping expenditure

Count Column N % Online shopping expenditure Less than Rs 500 20 4.9% 500 to 1000 55 13.4% 1000 to 2000 167 40.8% 2000 to 5000 136 33.3% More than 5000 31 7.6%

Fig 25: Pie Chart for online shopping expenditure of respondents(own analysis)

Count

8% 5% 13%

Less than Rs 500 33% 500 to 1000 1000 to 2000

41% 2000 to 5000 More than 5000

According to most of the respondents the average expenditure per month is rupees 1000-2000(41% of respondents), followed by Rs.2000-5000(33% of respondents).

163

Table 108: Frequency of Internet Access:

(i)Internet Access

Observed N Expected N Residual

Almost everyday 228 67.5 160.5

2-3 days a week 58 67.5 -9.5

4-5 days a week 89 67.5 21.5

Once a week 26 67.5 -41.5

Rarely 3 67.5 -64.5

Never 1 67.5 -66.5

Total 405

(ii)Chi-square test result:

Test Statistics

Internet Access

Chi-Square 542.481a

Df 5

Asymp. Sig. .000 a. 0 cells (.0%) have expected frequencies less than 5. The minimum expected cell frequency is 67.5.

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the responses are not equally distributed. It means the proportion of responses for use of internet is different. The residual table provides the contribution for the significance. It can be observed from the residual table that the highest residual is observed for the Almost every day and the residual is positive hence we conclude that the most of the respondents are using internet on almost every day.

164

Table 109: Change in Frequency of traditional Shopping

Observed N Expected N Residual

Yes 377 204.5 172.5

No 32 204.5 -172.5

Total 409

(ii)Pearson‘s Chi-square test:

Change in Frequency of traditional Shopping

Chi-Square 291.015

Df 1

Asymp. Sig. .000

Exact Sig. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi-square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the responses are not equally distributed. It means the proportion of respondent responding positively for change in frequency in traditional shopping due to online shopping. The residual table provides the contribution for the significance. It can be observed from the residual table that the highest residual is observed from both the categories only with positive and negative signs indicating that those responded positively are significantly higher as well as those responded negatively are significantly less in the distribution.

165

Table 110:Analysis of Usage of social media:

(i)

Count Column N % 15-30 min 13 3.2% 30-60 min 27 6.6% 1-2 hrs 33 8.1% 2-3 hrs 162 39.6% More than 3 hrs 174 42.5%

Observed N Expected N Residual

15-30 min 13 81.8 -68.8

30-60 min 27 81.8 -54.8

1-2 hrs 33 81.8 -48.8

2-3 hrs 162 81.8 80.2

More than 3 hrs 174 81.8 92.2

Total 409

(ii) Chi-square test:

Q 14

Chi-Square 306.244a

Df 4

Asymp. Sig. .000

Interpretation: most of the respondents spend more than two hours on social media.

Objective4(b): To analyse the online retail websites surfing behavior

166

Table 111: Analysis of e-retail website surfing behaviour

(i)Basic data distribution

Almost Never Sometime Often Always always

Coun Coun % Count % Count % % Count % t t

Window shopping with .0 21.5 50.6 24.0 0 88 207 98 16 3.9% no intention of % % % % buying

Researching a product with 2.0 24.7 54.3 15.2 8 101 222 62 16 3.9% the intention % % % % buying

Comparing and actually .0 15.6 64.3 16.1 0 64 263 66 16 3.9% buying the % % % % product

(ii)Mean Rank table:

Sr. Mean NO. Activities N Rank

1 Window shopping with no intention to shop online 409 639.13

2 Researching a product with the intension of buying it in store 409 571.92

3 Comparing and actually purchasing online 409 630.95

Total 122 7

167

(iii)Kruskal-Wallis test:

Test Statisticsa,b

Value

Chi-Square 10.876

Df 2

Asymp. Sig. .004 a. Kruskal Wallis Test b. Grouping Variable: Index1

Interpretation: Since p-value for the Kruskal-Wallis test is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the average score for the engagement in the above activities differ significantly when compared with each other. The higher mean rank is observed for the Window shopping with no intention to shop online indicating that the most of the respondents feels that they are engage in window shopping with no intention of shopping. To find out its significance with other activities we used Mann-Whitney U test as pair wise comparison test.

Conclusion: Respondents are equally and more often involved in the activities like window shopping with no intention to shop online and comparing and buying the product online only.

Objective 4( c ): To identify the most frequently purchased products.

168

Table 112: Comparison of the frequency of the purchase of different categories of products:

(iv) Basic data distribution

Almost Never Sometime Often always Always

Cou Coun Coun nt % Count % Count % t % t %

Apparels 0 .0% 106 26.9% 203 51.5% 77 19.5% 8 2.0%

Electronic 4 1.1% 50 13.9% 109 30.2% 182 50.4% 16 4.4% items

Books 23 8.3% 57 20.7% 92 33.3% 88 31.9% 16 5.8%

Grocery and nutrition 22 9.2% 143 59.6% 75 31.2% 0 .0% 0 .0% related products

Pharmaceuti 69 51.1% 50 37.0% 16 11.9% 0 .0% 0 .0% cal products

Entertainme nt (CD, DVD, 27 11.2% 117 48.3% 90 37.2% 8 3.3% 0 .0% etc.)

(v) Mean Rank table:

N Mean Rank Rank

Apparels 394 917.36 3rd

EI 361 1140.97 1st

Books 276 961.14 2nd

GNP 240 549.51 5th

169

PP 135 301.95 6th

Entertainment 242 609.62 4th

Total 1648

Fig 26: Bar chart for mean rank of frequency of products purchased online (own Analysis)

Mean Rank

Entertainment 609.62

PP 301.95

GNP 549.51

Books 961.14

EI 1140.97

Apparels 917.36

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

(iii) Kruskal-Wallis test to compare the frequency:

Test Statisticsa,b

Value

Chi-Square 536.551

Df 5

Asymp. Sig. .000

Kruskal Wallis Test

170

Interpretation: Since p-value for the Kruskal-Wallis test is less than that of 0.05 indicates significance of difference between the frequenciesof purchase of the different products. On observing mean rank table we found that Electronic Items (EI) are purchased very frequently online and then Apparel, books and Entertainment, Grocery and nutrition related products (GNP) and Pharmaceutical products (PP). The PP has least preferred to be bought online.

Objective4( d ): To analyze online research by customer for different categories of product.

Table 113: Analysis of online product research by customers( analysis of Q.22)

(i) Basic data distribution

Observed N Expected N Residual

Extensive search 109 100.5 8.5

Moderate 229 100.5 128.5

Limited 56 100.5 -44.5

No search 8 100.5 -92.5

Total 402

(ii)Chi-Square test result:

Value

Chi-Square 269.861

Df 3 p-value. .000

171

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that respondents conduct at least moderate search before purchasing any type of products.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Table 114: response about spending different time and effort for different products(Q.23)

(i) Basic Data Distribution

Observed N Expected N Residual

Yes 395 201.0 194.0

No 7 201.0 -194.0

Total 402

(ii)Chi-Square test result:

Value

Chi-Square 374.488

Df 1 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that respondents do agree that the time and effort spent on pre-purchase products research differ for different products.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

172

Table 115: Table of most extensively researched product: A comparative analysis

Analysis of Q.24 Observed N Expected N Residual 1 49 32.2 16.8 2 90 32.2 57.8 7 4 32.2 -28.2 12 177 32.2 144.8 17 4 32.2 -28.2 23 15 32.2 -17.2 24 8 32.2 -24.2 27 14 32.2 -18.2 126 4 32.2 -28.2 127 32 32.2 -0.2 178 8 32.2 -24.2 1267 4 32.2 -28.2 Total 409 Interpretation: respondents conduct most extensive research before purchasing electronics and Apparels. Here different numbers 1,2,3…7 represent different categories of products as presented in question number 24.

Table 116: table of number of websites visited before reaching at purchasing decision (i) Observed N Expected N Residual 1-3 215 74.8 3-5 112 74.8 5-7 30 74.8 7-10 28 74.8 more than 10 22 74.8 Total 407

(ii)Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 341.612 Df 4 p-value. .000

173

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondents visits at least 3-5 websites before making buying decision. The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Objective 5: To identify factors motivating customers to shop online.

Table117: List of factors motivating customers to shop online

Sr. No.

Ability to shop at a discounted price 1

Flexibility of shopping hours 2

Availability of greater variety of products/brands 3

Ease of comparing to find lower prices 4

Saving the cost of transportation needed to drive to shopping 5 places.

Convenience of not having to leave the house to shop 6

Ability to purchase a gift and have it delivered directly to a 7 friend/relative

Availability of consumer reviews and product rating information 8

Table 118: Table of basic data distribution of motivating factors

Not at all Less Somewhat Extremely important important important important important Cou Coun Coun Coun Coun % % % % % nt t t t t Ability to shop at a 34.0 62.3 0 .0% 0 .0% 15 3.7% 139 255 discounted price % % Flexibility of 65.8 23.0 0 .0% 24 5.9% 22 5.4% 269 94 shopping hours % % Availability of 69.4 27.6 greater variety of 0 .0% 0 .0% 12 2.9% 284 113 % % products/brands

174

Ease of 13.2 62.6 22.2 comparing to find 0 .0% 8 2.0% 54 256 91 % % % lower prices Saving the cost of transportation 43.4 42.4 0 .0% 26 6.5% 174 170 31 7.7% needed to drive to % % shopping places. Convenience of not having to 32.8 50.1 13.4 0 .0% 15 3.7% 134 205 55 leave the house to % % % shop Ability to purchase a gift and have it 29.3 51.8 10.1 0 .0% 34 8.8% 113 200 39 delivered directly % % % to a friend/relative Availability of consumer reviews 48.7 47.2 0 .0% 16 4.1% 0 .0% 188 182 and product rating % % information

Table 119: Mean Rank Table for motivating factors

N Mean Rank

1 409 2263.49

2 409 1653.78

3 409 1825.38

4 409 1613.29

5 401 1024.05

6 409 1256.89

7 386 1178.81

8 386 2049.39

175

Table 120: Kruskal-Wallis test for analysing motivating factors

Test Statisticsa,b

Value

Chi-Square 742.244

Df 7

Asymp. Sig. .000 a. Kruskal Wallis Test b. Grouping Variable: Index1

Interpretation: Since p-value for the Kruskal-Wallis test is less than that of 0.05 indicates that there is significance of difference between the average importance for the motivating factors. Some factors like Ability to shop at a discounted price and Availability of consumer reviews and product rating information seems to be more important than others as the mean rank is higher for these factors.

Descriptive analysis of remaining questions:

Table 121: Most frequent E-tailing Websites:

No. of Respondents Percentage Flipkart.com 408 99.03 Amazon.in 392 95.15 Snapdeal.com 307 74.51 Shopsclue.com 141 34.22 Myntra.com 307 74.51 Fashion&you.com 58 14.08 Homeshop18.com 125 30.34 Jabong.com 122 29.61 e-bay.com 33 8.01 Firstcry.com 199 48.30

176

Interpretation: Flipkart.com is most popular e-retailing website followed by Amazon.in

Q 16: Table 122: (i) respondents motivated to visit e-retailing website in response to ads on social media

Observed N Expected N Residual

Yes 377 204.5 172.5

No 32 204.5 -172.5

Total 409

(ii) Chi-Square test result:

Value

Chi-Square 291.015

Df 1 p-value. .000

Q 17: Table 123(i) respondents using social media account to login e-retailing website

Observed N Expected N Residual

Almost always 20 136.3 -116.3

Often 257 136.3 120.7

Some times 132 136.3 -4.3

Total 409

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(ii) Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 206.205 Df 2 p-value. .000 Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondents areuse their social networking account to log into other retailing website.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Q 18 Table 124: (i) respondents purchasing through social media

Observed N Expected N Residual Yes 348 204.5 143.5 No 61 204.5 -143.5 Total 409

(ii) Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 201.391 Df 1 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that respondents purchase product through social media. The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Q 19 Table 125: (i) Reasons of purchasing via social media

Observed N Expected N Residual Read on-line review or blog about 38 133.7 -98.7 that particular product Viewed the advertisement of the 38 133.7 -98.7 product on social networking site Both 333 133.7 197.3 Total 409

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Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 425.55 Df 2 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondentsRead on-line review or blog about that particular product and viewed the advertisement of the product on social networking site.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

Q 20: Table: 126: number of respondents sending link to family and friends

Observed N Expected N Residual Yes 257 201.0 56.0 No 145 201.0 -56.0 Total 402

Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 31.204 Df 1 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that the respondents send the link of e-retailing websites having a special offer on products to their friends and family. The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses

Q 21: Table 127: Number of respondents writing reviews

Observed N Expected N Residual Yes 281 201.0 80.0 No 121 201.0 -80.0 Total 402

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Chi-Square test result:

Value Chi-Square 63.682 Df 1 p-value. .000

Interpretation: Since p-value for the chi square is less than that of 0.05 indicates that often the respondents share their opinion by writing reviews or blogs.The higher positive residual indicates significantly positive responses.

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CHAPTER: 8

FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS

Social media offer affordable opportunities to reach large populations. Additionally, online campaigns on social media can benefit from the persuasive features of interactive multi-media systems. Many researchers and marketing mogul have considered social media as an effective tool of marketing. Social media is a phenomenon that has become an important aspect in marketing mix and is revolutionizing the way companies interact with customers. Therefore this research is significant to analyze the impact of marketing strategies adopted by E- Retailers. The detailed research on the topic has lead to certain conclusions which are enumerated in this chapter: (a)Association between the social media marketing and buying behavior of consumers:  It is proved that marketing via social media significantly affect the buying behavior of consumers.  It is established that majority of consumers consider social media as effective means of marketing.  The availability of social media has made consumers more informed about brands when making purchase decisions.  Majority of customers strongly agree to the statement that they are more exposed to marketing communication as a result of increased media use.  Social media allows effective two way communication between customer and e-retailer.  The quick spread of information, positive or negative through social media can have lasting effect on perception of e-retailing website, brand or product. (b) There is no association between demographic factors and the effect of social media marketing on consumer behavior however in response to certain questions people belonging to different demographics showed some variations in their answers:  More percentage of female are strongly agree to the statement that The

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availability of social media has made consumers more informed about brands when making purchase decisions whereas more percentage of male are uncertain to this fact.  More number of male accept that they are more likely to purchase products such as mobile phones, games etc which are extensively promoted on social media even prior to launch of the product.  Female are more frequent buyers of apparel and conduct extensive search on social media before purchasing them.  Greater percentage of post graduate respondents are uncertain about the fact that they are more likely to respond to the marketing messages communicated via social media than more traditional forms of advertisement like television, Radio etc. Apart from above few difference of opinions the analysis of relationship between demographic factors and effect of social media marketing proves following:  There is no association between gender and effectiveness of Social Media.  There is no association between education and effectiveness of Social Media.  There is no association between occupation and effectiveness of Social Media.  There is no association between income and effectiveness of Social Media.  There is no association between age and effectiveness of Social Media.

Majority of respondents agreed to the fact that their frequency of traditional shopping has change as a result of online shopping. About 92% of respondents say that they opt more frequently for online shopping and the traditional mode of shopping has decreased as a result.

(c) Majority of respondents‘ access internet almost daily. It has been observed that almost 82% of respondents spend more than two hours on social media websites which clearly depicts the popularity of social media. (d) According to most of respondents the average expenditure per month is rupees 1000-2000(41% of respondents) followed by rupees 2000-5000 (33% of respondents).

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(e) It has been observed on the analysis of consumer behavior that they are often engaged in activities like E-retail website window shopping with no intention to purchase. (f) The most important factors which motivate te respondents to shop online are availability to shop at discounted price and availability of consumer reviews and product rating information. (g) Advertisements by e-retailing companies posted on social networking accounts motivate customers to visit and purchase from the particular e-retailing website. (h) The level of trust for shopping online is building gradually as majority respondents agreed to have shopped after clicking on the advertisement on social media. (i) Reviews on social networking sites are important factors in motivating customers to purchase from E-retailers. (j) Majority of respondents share their opinion by writing reviews and send the link of e-retailing websites having a special offer on products to their friends and family. (k) Most of respondents agreed to conduct at least moderate product information search before purchasing products and they conduct most extensive research before purchasing electronic items. They generally visit 3-5 E-retailing websites before making purchase decision. (l) Apparels and electronics are most frequently purchased items from E-retailers. (m) Flipkart and Amazon are most popular websites among respondents. (n) Facebook is most popular and trusted social networking site on which respondents find the advertisements attractive, appealing and genuine. (o) Most of respondents rate social networking as an effective means of marketing for E-retailers.

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Chapter- 9 Recommendations

Recommendations and suggestions The aim of this thesis was to further the understanding of consumer behaviour in responses to social media Marketing. From the thorough analysis of data the following recommendations and suggestions can be made: 1. As it has been proved that marketing via social media has a significant impact on customers buying decision process, it can be used by e-retails as an effective tool of marketing. But as now a days almost all the e-retailers have a presence on social media so it is very important to be different in order to prompt the customer to respond to advertisements. It is of vital importance to make advertisements unique and attractive and customize them as per the likes and dislikes of customers and prospects. The following suggestions are made to create attractive marketing campaign on social media:  Use Images while posting on social media: Adding an image to an otherwise text-based announcement is far more compelling and will increase click-through significantly.  Incorporate the Link of e-retailing website: In response to a question most of respondents said that they like to send links of the product they like to their friends on social networking site. Therefore it is advisable that when E-retailers make an announcement or promote a product they should include the link to the page within the post along with the image.  Embedding social buttons within website and marketing communications to encourage customers to share their views.  Leverage Social Reviews to Automate Word of Mouth Marketing 2. As trust worthiness of advertisements on social media is an important factor for consumers, the advertisements by e-retailers must be genuine, simple and draw a realistic picture.

3. As it is evident from the study that majority of people spend more than 2 hours on social networking sites. There is a need to engage the always connected consumer at every touch point and in real time, anticipating their needs and responding at every step.

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4. As it is shown in the research that social media marketing effect the behavior of consumers belonging to different demographics so e-retailers should design customized marketing strategies for each segment of customers.

5. According to the study the most frequently purchased items are Apparel and electronics so special focus is required for the marketing these segment.

6. Consumers visit 3-5 websites before making purchase decision so it is advisable for the e-retailers to keep track of marketing strategies of competing websites.

7. Facebook is most effective tool of marketing as per the study but now a considerable amount of people are using new SNSs like instagram, pinterest ect so there is an opportunity to use these new social sites optimally. The Social networking sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, instagram etc. can improve their marketing efficiency by enhancing features like targeting the advertisements to the right group of audiences and making the ads more appealing so that more and more audience are attracted towards them for socialising as well as accessing product information.

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Scope of Future Study:

1) There is a scope of more focused study on each category of product. The thesis is a comprehensive study involving various types of products sold by e-retailers. Separate studies can be conducted on individual categories of products like apparel and fashion or groceries etc 2) Similar studies can be conducted in different cities with different demographics. 3) There can be study of social media marketing on buying behavior of specific group of people like students, business class, government servants, housewives etc. 4) There can be study on impact of marketing on particular social networking site like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc.

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190 customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand(Journal of Business Research Volume 65, Issue 10, October 2012, Pages 1480–1486)

43Logan Keltz, Bright et al(2012) Facebook Vs. Television; Advertising Value Perception among Females,‖ Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing 164- 179, Vol 6 Issue 3

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52 Parihar, M. (2012), ―Nirma International Conference Of Management‖, NICOM,1-18.

53 Rajiv Ramjidas Manrao(2014), ―Impact of Social Networking Through Social Media on Improvement of Performance in Business‖ School of Management, D.Y. Patil University.

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55 Ronald T. Rust and Richard W. Oliver (June 2013), ―The Death of Advertising‖, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, Issue no. 4.

56. Ruiy, H. and Whinston, A. (2009), ―Social Media As An Innovation - The Case of Twitter‖, Social Science Research Network, SSRN, 1-38.

57.Rohrs Jeffrey ―Audience(06/12/2013): Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers‖ Publisher, John Wiley & Sons Inc. Date of Publication

58.Shalakha Ayarekar( 2015), ― Impact and Effectiveness of Social Media Advertising on Young Working Women‘s Buying Behaviour with reference to Consumer Electronics-A Study of Selected cities in Maharashtra and Gujrat‖ School of Management, D.Y.Patil University

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Questionnaire

I am student of M.Phil, School of Management, D.Y.Patil University. I am conducting this survey as a part of my dissertation work. Section A: Demographic profile

1.) NAME:-

2) AGE:-

a) 18-20 Years b) 20-25 Years c) 25-30 Years d)30-35 Years

e) 35-40 years

3) EDUCATION:-

a) Up to graduation b) graduation c) post-graduation

d) PhD. e) Post Doctorate

3)NAME OF COURSE FOR STUDENTS:-

4) OCCUPATION :- a) service b) self-employed c) business d) others

4) NAME OF COLLEGE / ORGANISATION:-

5) INCOME:-

a)0- 1 Lack b)1-5 lacks c) 5-10 lacks

d)10-15 Lacks e)Above 15 Lacks

6) Gender:-

a) Male b) female c) others

Section B

1) Do you purchase products from online retailing websites YES NO

2) Which are the products you purchase on-line?

a) Apparels b) Electronics items c) Books

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d) Grocery and nutrition related products e) Pharmaceutical products

f) Entertainment (CDs, DVDs, games) g) Kids Product

h) Others ……………………………………….....

3) How often do you purchase each of the following types of product online?

Always almost often sometimes Never always

a) Apparel

b) Electronics

c) Books

d) Grocery and nutrition related products. e) Pharmaceuticals

f) Entertainment

4) Which are the e-retail website you purchase from.

a) Flipkart.com b) Amazon.in c) Snapdeal.com d) Shopsclue.com e) Myntra.com f) Fashion&you.com g) Homeshop18.com h) Jabong.com i) e-bay.com j) Firstcry.com k) Others ………………………………………..

5) How often do you access internet on computer / mobile phone. a) Almost every day b) 2-3 days a week c) 4-5 days a week d) Once a week e) Rarely f) Never

6) Do you think that your frequency of traditional shopping has changed due to online shopping? Yes No

7) If yes does your frequency of traditional shopping? Increased Decreased

8) What is your average on-line shopping expenditure in one month?

a) Less than Rs.500/- b) Rs.500 to 1000 c) Rs. 1000 – 2000 d) Rs.2000-5000 e) More the Rs.5000

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9) How often do you engage in following activities:-

Always almost often Sometimes Never always a) Window shopping with no intention to shop online b) Use internet for researching a product with the intension of buying it in store c) Comparing products online & actually purchasing on internet.

10) What attracts you to purchase from Website.

a) Advertisements and other marketing practices of e-retailing websites

b) Opinions of friend and family

c) Past experience

d) Prices of products

e) Designs of website

f) Payments method

g) Delivery options

h) Return Policy/After sale services

11) How important are each of the following factors in motivating you to shop online?

Extremely Important Somewhat Less Not at all Important important important Important n) Ability to shop at a discounted price o) Flexibility of shopping hours

p) Availability of greater variety of products/brands q) Ease of comparing to find lower prices

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r) Saving the cost of transportation needed to drive to shopping places. s) Convenience of not having to leave the house to shop t) Ability to purchase a gift and have it delivered directly to a friend/relative u) Availability of consumer reviews and product rating information

12) Do you have an account on social networking website?

Yes No

13) If yes, which of the following social networking website do you currently have an account with:- a) Facebook b) Google + c) Linkedin d) Twitter e) Blogs f) pintrest g) My space h) Others

14) How much time in a typical day do you spend on social networking sites.

a) 15-30 min b) 30-60 min c) 1-2 hours d) 2-3 hours e) More than 2 hours

15) Please state your level of agreement with the following statement:-

Strongly Agree Uncertain Disagree Strongly Agree Disagree a) I am a frequent user of social media b) The availability of social media has made me more informed about brands when making purchase decisions. c) I am more likely to respond to

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Marketing message communicated via social media than more traditional format such as TV and radio. d) I am more exposed to marketing Communication as a result of Increasing social media use.

e) I am more likely to purchase a Product such as mobile phone or video game that has been extensively Promoted in social media prior to launch.

f) I believe that social media allows effective two -way Communication between Myself and e-retailors. g) The quick spread of information Positive or negative through social media can have lasting effect on effect on The perception of e-retailing Website, brand or product.

16) Do the advertisements by e-retailing companies posted on your social networking accounts motivate you to visit the particular website? Yes No

17) How often do you use your social networking account to log into other retailing website. a) Always b) almost always c) Often d) Sometimes e) Never

18) Did you purchase any product through social media?

Yes No

19) If yes what was the reason behind your purchase through social media.

a) Read on-line review or blog about that particular product

b) Viewed the advertisement of the product on social networking site

c) Other Specify …………………………………………………………………………………………..

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20) Do you send the link of e-retailing websites having a special offer on products to your friends and family. Yes No

21) Do you share your opinion by writing reviews or blogs?

Yes No

22) Before making actual purchase decision what type of product information search do you conduct on social media. a)Extensive search b)Moderate c) Limited d) Often e) No search

23) Does the time and effort spent on pre-purchase products research differ for different products. Yes No

24) If Yes then for which category of product do you conduct most extensive research. a) Apparels b) Electronics items c) Books

d) Grocery and nutrition related products e) Pharmaceutical products

f) Entertainment (CDs, DVDs, games) g) Kids Product

h) Others ……………………………………….....

25) Which category of products do you generally buy after seeing an advertisement on social media/reading reviews or blogs:-

a) Apparels b) electronic items c) books d) Grocery and nutrition related products e) pharmaceutical f) entertainment g) kids products h) others……………………………..

26) Do you compare a product on different online retailers website before making actual purchase? Yes No

27) How many on-line retailing website do you visit on an average before making a buying descision. a)1-3 b)3-5 c)5-7 d) 7-10 e) More then 10

28) Do you agree that you had no plan of purchasing any product when you logged on a social networking site but you end up purchasing one.

a) Strongly agree b)Agree c)uncertain d) Disagree

e)Strongly disagree

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29) Do you agree that at times you buy a product because of an attractive discount offer displayed in the advertisement on social networking site.

a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) uncertain d) Disagree

e) Strongly disagree

30) Answer Yes/No in appropriate all below:-

Facebook twitter linkdin Google+ youtube pintrest other s On which social networking site (SNS) do you find advertisement attractive And appealing On which SNS do you find the offers and images of products genuine and correlate with the actual product Do you have any intention to purchase in future after watching an advertisement on this social networking sites?

31) How do you rate social networking as a means of marketing for E-retailing websites?

a) Extremely effective b) Effective c) Moderately effective d) Ineffective f) extremely ineffective

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