revise 29 SEP KAIDI CHEN full draft

This research is designed to explore how social media might impact to consumer purchasebehavior, specializing in searching information stage before evaluating and decide to buy a product

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHAMTON NORTHAMPTON BUSINESS SCHOOL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This dissertation is one of the biggest challenging for me, especially when English is not my mothertongue language and I both working for earn living and complete this both the most important andpressure study task

I thankfully acknowledge that without a lot help and support from my family and school, thisdissertation cannot be completed First of all, I sincerely express my deep gratitude to my supervisorwho has always with all his detail and encouragement step by step guided and support me toaccomplish this dissertation Secondly, I would like to appreciate all freely participant into interviews

to help me to finish dissertation Last but not least, I would like to give all my heart to my family andfriends who have hand me their endless love and support for me to able wrap up this big lastchallenging research

Social media with its increasing usages nowadays is considered like an undeniable effective tool formarketing This research is designed to explore how social media might impact to consumer purchasebehavior, specializing in searching information stage before evaluating and decide to buy a product.Data collection is collected and analyzed from interview with 15 young Asian people ranged from 22-

30 years olds The findings of research approve that social media, especially facebook is playing adaily part of young people in communication both in private relationship and work, from which mightapprove potential of using social media for marketer and producers Word of mouth and reviews onproducts on social media has been considered a referral source for consumers with their own criticaladjustment Besides, the research also exploited out google product habit of consumers, that mightindicate a future research for marketers how to increase social media content of product appear first

on Google or how to build an attractive and trustable social page for consumers Besides, it is also areferral sources when 80% of interviewees stated that they do not want to share or write reviews onproduct on social media And, generally, comparing with traditional television advertisement, socialmedia advertising or reviews on products are much more preferred Facebook is recognized anincreasing shopping and potential marketing product due to all interviews admit at least beingattracted to a product on newfeeds of their friend facebook or pop-up facebook advertisement

2010) Thus, agents have noticed this social media advantage to borrow its powerful interaction toengage brand with their both potential and targeted customers On the contrary, social mediaplatforms are rich information sources which consumers might get its influence on their evaluatingsimilar products or making the final purchase decision in their buying decision making process.Particularly in information searching stage, social media platforms can be act as a trustable referencefor consumers who searching reviews on brand (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010).

So far, the topic of ‘The impact of social media on consumer involvement in the brand’ will beinvestigated in this research with the hope to have further understanding on how social mediainfluence to consumers in the internet area when overloading information and social rumors easily tospread From the findings of research, highly the author desire to help brand to have abetter ínsight intheir consumers within support from social media platforms On the other hand, it also might supportthem to jugde, evaluate and critically apply suitable solutions for current troubles need to solved

Thus, the research will induct research toward to young adults, who are high education, have wellconditions to access internet daily life They are considered as the most active audience on socialmedia as well as potential consumers for social media interaction of particular brands Interview will

be used to give an open share and deeper insight on the habit of collecting information on socialmedia as well as how information on social media channels can impact to consumer purchasebehavior, including its affect to their purchasing making decision process

1.2 Research problem:

As mentioned above, thanks to development of IT technology and social media, there is more impact

of social media to consumer behavior (Hudson & Thal ,2013; Hutter et all 2013; Laroche et all 2012;Kumar et all 2016 ) Thus, this study aims to figure out how influence of social media might effect toconsumer behavior

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

1.4 The research rationale

The aim of conducting this research is to understand more how social media affect to consumerpurchase behavior Particularly, by exploring factors impact to consumers in using social mediachannels for searching more information about a particular brand, the researcher will be able to figureout important of social media reviews to client searching information process as well as how it canaffect to final purchase decision

As mentioned in the previous section, the matter of exploring how level consumers believe in socialmedia are also mentioned and studied This help to identify which level that consumer perceivedinformation from social media to their final purchase decision From the study results, a deeperknowledge of how social media impacts to consumer purchase behavior can be found out

1.5 Scope of the research:

The scope of this research focus on behavior of Asian youth (mostly students and officers rangedfrom 21- 30 years old, mostly nationality Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese) to explore theirrelationship between social media and purchase This means that this study is just narrowed in sample

of Asian group (specifically in Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese), not covered Western samples

This study will collect data and information from 15 people who are friends or classmates of theresearchers Yet, it is understandable that not all people are open to be willing to participate in thisstudy Hence, the researcher will aim for a sample size of 15 interviews for conducting both by directface to face interview or through telephone/Skype interview

1.6 Research Structure

This research contains six-chapter structure, which aims to the convenient follow of readers Thechapter one introduces general information on research background, research aim and objectives andresearch structure with the aim to let the readers would have a whole – view on direction of research.The following chapter 2 displays the literature review which is relevant on brand, social media,purchase behavior process of consumers as well as relationship between social media and consumerprocess Next, Chapter 3 presents research methodology structure, in which include explanation of thechoice of research method and the way the research is implemented The procedure to collect data isalso pointed out in this chapter Chapter 4 presents findings, which accomplish answers to theresearch aim and objectives Chapter 5 analyses data finding and discusses the data from this research

in relation to existing literature Finally, chapter 6 summarizes all findings of research with summary,limitation acknowledgements, and further research proposals

CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter targets to review existing studies and research relevant on impact of social media and consumer purchase behavior and how brand is perceived by consumer through social media To be specific, this chapter will dig in definitions, types, usage of social media and consumer purchase process, the impact – the relationship between social media and purchase behavior.

2.1 The means of brand

2.1.1 Brand definition

According to Wood (2000), there are three main ways to describe the word “brand”: (1), brand can be

From the viewpoint of the brand’s owner, the American Marketing Association (1960) defined

“brand” as: Everything that is used to distinguish one’s products from others, including label, sign,symbol, etc Dibb et al (1997) also explained “brand” as: “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol orany other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”Keller (1993) denoted “brand” from the viewpoint of the customers, as what they recognize andvaluate in their own assessment From the viewpoint of both the owner and the customers, Wood(2010) described that: “A brand is a mechanism for achieving competitive advantage for firms,through differentiation (purpose) The attributes that differentiate a brand provide the customer withsatisfaction and benefits for which they are willing to pay (mechanism)”

Brand equity plays a crucial part in some specific situations For example, when a customer uses adevice that is highly visible to other people, or when a customer has to make a difficult purchasingdecision During these times, the equity of a brand shows its importance in the final resolution aconsumer may make (Schivinskin and Dabrowski, 2013)

To further promote brand equity, social media is an effective and trustable tool, especially in this time,

as customers are offered many different choices for the same product (Chung & Austria, 2010)

in finding what they want (Kapferer, 2008 and Keller, 2008) Secondly, buying from a well-knownbrand reduces the risk of buying fake products (Kapferer, 2008; Riesenbeck and Perrey, 2007) Itshould be noted that, the brand must be trustable to actually ensure that customer can buy authentic,high quality goods Thirdly, customers can show their characters and personalities via the productsthey use, which is the symbolic function of a brand (Ahuvia, 2005) Fourthly, and surprisingly, peopleusing the same brand of production can actually form new relationships or social ties, according toSchau et al (2009) Brand also possesses social value, as it helps customers build social capital Holt(2002) emphasized that, to be able to help consumers to create their own identities, a brand must beoriginal and well-liked by people, and must be seen as a cultural resource Brand value is decided bythe loyalty of the customers toward the brand, because this is the source where the money comesfrom.

2.1.4 Brand image or Brand identity

Wood (2002) stated that brand image is the definition of a brand and the faith of customers in it.Brand strength and brand description sometimes are called “consumer brand equity” to make differentfrom the evaluation asset meaning Wood (2000) also said that brand identity was made to suit thetaste of a target market, by marketing the product, price, place and promotion at the same time Thebrand strength and brand loyalty depend on whether the marketing is successful or not

2.1.5 Branding and brand awareness

Of the same opinion, Aaker (1996) and Keller (1993) both agreed that the capability of a customer torecognize, distinguish and recall a brand under different circumstances is called brand awareness.Brand recall is when a customer sees a product and he immediately remembers of the brand name.Brand recognition means the customer can identify a brand among many others Things like the name,symbol, or some special traits of a brand help customer raise awareness of the brand (Macdonald etall 2000)

Hoeffler and Keller (2002) dug deeper into this issue, to find out that brand awareness can be put intotwo categories: depth and width By depth, it means that a customer can effortlessly recall a brandname By width, it means the customer buy products based on the brand name Davis et all (2008) haspointed out, that brand name is the most essential factor of building brand awareness Furthermore,Keller (1993) believed that, the more positive the image of a brand, the more benefits it will make As

a result, a brand name which can promote its positive image as well as its popularity can easily gainprofit (Turley and Moore, 1995)

the consumers Whichever brands compile in the customers’ mind will partly control the purchasingdecision of the customers.

2.2 Social media

2.2.1 Social media definition

Kaplan and Haen1ein (2010, p 63) describes social media as "a group of Internet-based applicationsthat build on the ideological foundations of web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of

“User Generated Content" (UGC)”

The term Web 2.0 is defined by O’ Reilly (2006) as “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in thecomputer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand therules for success on that new platform." This definition viewed media from the business view,developed by Tim O’Reilly – the founder of O’ Reilly media He also noted that Web 2.0 is the

“harnessing of collective intelligence”, in which user-generated content was created In socialmediaplatform, all individuals – the former audience participants can involve in important decisions made

by a few people Specifically, Web 2.0, also known as the social media, allows everyone to changeand transact applications or files freely, unlike before when only publishers and creators had the rights

to do so (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2009)

Nowadays, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Micro blogs, etc createsplatforms for people to interact with each other, to share their opinions, and so on via social mediachannel (Evans 2012)

Figure 1 below shows that, the social media is built upon “social interaction, content, andcommunication media” (Dann and Dann , 2011) Communication has never been so easy, now that wehave these social media The social media may leave an impact at global level, as information cannow be transferred throughout the world in the blink of an eye (Smith and Zook 2011, 10), enablesocialization information ( Solis,2007)

Figure 1 Components of social media (Dann and Dann 2011, pg345)

Safko and Brake (2009, pg 6) also agreed with Kaplan and Haenlein (2009) in defining social media

as “activities, practices, and behaviors among communities of people who gather online to shareinformation, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media” The new, modern social mediahelps create two-way conversations, as it made it easy for everyone to contribute or give their opinion

in anything that they are interested in; thus accelerate the flow of communication (Mayfield 2008).The new social media represent the new way which people approach the information on the Internet,and vice versa Social media centers around users, allow them to create, to comment, to share, etc.Solis (2007) called it a democratization of content

2.2.2 Categories of social media

There are many categories of the social media However, in this discussion, we only focus on 5 types:–1) social networking sites, 2) social news, 3) media sharing, 4) blogs, and 5) micro blogging Each ofthem has their own special features, thus providing different users different experiences of usingthem Marketers and consumers are no exception

For consumers, they function as a bridge to stay connected to the brand through various platforms –fan pages, plug-in applications and groups

half (55 percent) have “Liked” Facebook pages of some brands, and 73 per cent have claimed thattheir choice of recent store visit is influenced by a social networking site (Dugan 2012)

2.2.2.1 Social Networking Sites

Social Networking SItes create online space for people to connect and build relationships, for instanceFacebook and MySpace Social networking sites, as Weinberg (2009, 149) defined “are generic termsfor sites that are used to connect users with similar backgrounds and interests” These platforms, ingeneral, share a few similarities – (1) interactive and customizable profile can be established eitherpublic or privacy control, (2) a list of suggested “friends” which automatically gather based on similarinterests and (3) their list of “friend” whom have connections within system (Boyd and Ellison 2007,p.211)

For clients, they function as a bridge to stay connected with the brand via several platforms– fanpages, plug-in applications and groups

Recently, Empathica has conducted a survey demonstrating how the U.S consumers’ habit of usingsocial media impact their shopping decisions Among more than 6,500 U.SA surveyed consumers,over half (55 percent) have “Liked” Facebook pages of some brands, and 73 per cent have claimedthat their choice of recent store visit is influenced by a social networking site (Dugan, 2012)

2.2.2.2 Social News and Bookmarking Sites

Similarly, Social News sites and Social Bookmarking sites, for instance Digg, Reddit, and Scoop.itare catching huge attention from the online community Social News not only allow users to managetheir news streams but also give individuals the permission to “submit and vote on content around theWeb” with its core value is to enable users “to collect interesting links they have discovered and maywish to revisit.” (Zarrella 2010, page 103.)

In another view, individuals are free to control and customize their news streams This particularfeature of social news site facilitates the democracy which creates values to users These sites allowindividuals to follow websites that a large number of people have previously discovered Some saysocial news sites have changed the concept of newspaper nowadays and they are governed by what iscalled the “wisdom of crowds” (Weinberg, 2009) The contents, even personal or targeted news,empower users by putting the audience in the center of active discussions and thereby demonstratehow readers interact (Baekdal,2009)

2.2.2.3 Media-Sharing Sites

Media-Sharing sites (e.g Youtube and Flickr) are place individuals can post, keep and share theirpersonal files, such as photos, videos, and music with other online audiences/users People can createtheir own opportunities through engaging to these websites since above platforms of social mediahave always been standing a firm and solid position in cyber societies Furthermore, they offer userschances to design their own page with not complex technology and promote their persona trademarkchannels One of the highlights of media-sharing sites is the tag “A tag is a word assigned to a piece

of content that helps describe it” (Zarrella 2010, pg 81) Hence, it is essential that business shouldfully comprehend the significance of search words and searching engines

2.2.2.4 Blogs

A blog can be defined as an online journal which allow to editable content management system(CMS), basically administrated by individuals or groups, featuring commentary and ideas to onlineaudience (Safko and Brake, 2009) On one hand, blogs create good page for various social mediamarketing materials (images, videos, link, and so on), because they can be easily posted up to socialmedia platforms In other hand, blog still enhance diversified of interactive features for instantcomments, tracking and subscribe (Zarrella 2010, pg 9) Furthermore, Weber (2009) has stated outblogs’ function allowing everyone to online and to join interactive conservations on internet, in whichbloggers are free to edit their page Thus, their posted written might negatively impact the other rightand reputation of individuals, brands or products

2.2.2.5 Microblogging

Microblogging almost has the same working system as blogging, with both being a real-timeinformation network However, unlike blogging, microblogging only allows users to write a limitednumber of words for each post, which makes communication much faster Users can send theirmessages via instant messages, mobile phones, e-mails, or the Web A notable example is Twitter.Twitter is first presented to public in 2006, and it immediately became one of the most popularmicroblogs (Twitter 2016) By making buzz on online communities possible Twitter helps companiesavoid wasting time surfing the Internet Through short text, it is much easier for users to grasp themain information Twitter has been exploited by many companies to promote business prospects,become influencers, and attract customers; at the same time form co-operation, achieving on-line andoffline marketing objectives, and brand building etc (Weinberg 2009) A special feature of Twitter isretweet, which is one of the most beneficial methods for marketing, as any user can copy the content

of others’ posts to make it appear on their own Twitter stream As a result, some tweets have goneviral after a short amount of time (Ingram 2012)

In fact, by enhancing short text post and its retweet, marketers and influencers can easily to approachtheir targeted customers when all individuals can instantly copy, paste and share short concise textmessage on twitter net Weinberg (2009) evaluated as Twitter is one of the most powerful socialmedia tool to building brand, maintain and developing customer relationship Furthermore, tweetspeed is incredible on its twitter stream that create powerful viral (Ingram, 2012)

• Youtube

Youtube was launched since February 2005 as a sharing video website allowing users upload, view ,comment , share and make inspiration without limitation of geography Until this April of 2016,Youtube reached over a billion people –nearly a third of Internet users Hundreds of millions ofhours of YouTube videos were watched and generate billions of views each day (Youtube.com,2016)

Many companies already created their brand channel in Youtube to upload video to pin their equityand do online marketing campaign effectively (Youtube.com, 2016) For example, trendy – visualrequire products such as fashion (Kim and Ko, 2012)

• LinkedIn

Official started in May, 2003, many professionals have activated accounts in LinkedIn to shareknowledge and build professional network with registed account of over 400 million members inspreading in 200 countries, available in 24 languages The rate sign up in it is more than two users persecond (Press.linkedin.com, 2016)

In LinkdIn company can access rich information sources provided by sign in user profiles date (such

as size of company, company name, job tittle) that they can do online marketing to targetedconsumers (Press.linkedin.com, 2016)

Advertising & indirect marketing exposure still reached to users via Flickr A company can use itwebsite address as its screen name which be attached with every company upload posted to board ofgroup discussion, or through tittle of images uploaded on Flickr (Flickr.com,2016)

2.2.4 Personal social media usage and General use of social media

People use social media as rich referral source for consumer toward their purchasing decision Socialmedia is undeniable its important impact on product sale (Andzulis et al., 2012) Besides, social mediamarketing messages boosts online consumers’ hedonic value (Chung and Austria, 2010) It bringsgreat chances to instantly reaching to consumer and online crowded audience (Muntinga et al., 2011)

It becomes trendy took in “consumer brand engagement” (Hollebeek et al., 2014)

Social media can enhance user can freely express and share experiences on products so that socialmedia has great impact to consumers who are seeking information and on evaluating products processbefore purchase decision (Hermida et al., 2012; Hutter et al.,2013 and Hudson and Thal, 2013).User generated content (UGC) which can be named as user-created content or user-generated medianowadays becomes one of the most influential online sources for consumers (Constantinides andFountain, 2008) For instant: review of online audience are believed to be one of the mostinfluential online sources nowsady (Constantinides and Fountain, 2008)

Social media is increasing its popularity and become powerful marketing and branding tools.Consumers find it as an convenient and up- to- date, trustable and bridging platform to satisfy theirmotivation in catching newest new, browsing referral and viral messages (Muntiga et al, 2011) andbeing a part of social media crowed to be freely express and engagement (Sashi, 2012) Additionally,Social media platform channels conveniently, freely and quickly allow people online and to post theirindividual experiences or opinions on a specific brand (Godes and Mayzlin, 2004) For product doingsocial media branding well such as Starbuck or luxurious brand (Burberry, Channel and so on), theirlarge fan brand community has impressive interaction between brand and consumers/ fans (Hollebeck

et all.2014, Kim and Ko, 2012; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010) has positive influence to brand awarenessand consumer engagement activities which is ground might lead to purchase intention or purchasebehavior later As the result, it become era of searching information from online external reviews andexperiences shared on online blogs, forums, sharing network; while people also have tendency totrademark their personal ideas, review and comment on brands which they have used

Customers tend to give their decision randomly rooted from their own judgment, which indicates that

in almost cases, consumers will take reference from external opinions to lead to their final buyingdecision (Blazevic et al., 2013) Besides, social media have been believed that it can providecustomers such a powerful and viral information, which later place great influence on final decision

of customer in choosing a particular brand period However, as another side of a coin, it alsoconsidered as disadvantage for brands due to what is being published online on social media platforms

is cannot control by marketers and it can be spread widely, instantly (De Vries et all., 2012)

Social media is used to “defining the target market, communicating with prospects, building loyalty,customer engagement and so on” (Weber, 2009) An empirical study with 441 respondents alsopointed that brand community on social media has huge influence to customer/ brand / product whichhighly positively impact to brand community (i.e., consciousness share, tradition and rituals share andobligation to society It leads to positive value brand creating such as loyalty and brand awareness(Laroche et al.,2013)

Besides, in the marketing aspect, brand life is based and developed mainly from the engagement withconsumers/ community/ online audience (Weber, 2009; Silverman, 2001) This leads to strongrelationship can be built if companies invest more in feedback and interactions with their onlineaudience (Weinberg, 2009) For instant, Nike has create and put more effort in digital social mediamarketing advertising and campaigns with the clear point of online channels is worthy more thantraditional advertising in this Internet era ( Joseph, 2013)

2.4 Consumer Behavior

2.4.1 Purchasing process of consumer

This research will be analyzing customer’s behavior throughout their decision making process whichare suggested that consumers will usually undergo certain stages before their final decisions havebeen made (Sallam, 2014) The developed customers’ decision making model from Kotler et

al (1999) will be used as one of the techniques to interpret customers’ behavior through each stage(See Figure below):

Figure 2: Buying decision process; Source: Kotler et al (1999) pg.254

Through the above figure, it can be concluded that consumers experienced five stages of buyingprocess Kotler et al (1999) pointed that Consumers might do not experience through all thestages when making purchase daily For instant: in each purchase daily, sometimes stages ofinformation search and evaluation are missed Generally, consumers faced with complex purchasesituation pass through all this stages:

(1) Need recognition: It arises when consumers ascertained their desire or need A need can be a

consequence of desire An example of internal stimulus happens when a customer feels hungry andneeds to find something to eat External stimulus, for example, takes place owing to a TV commercialand after that consumers think that they need that products or brands Therefore, it is vital to detectwhat can appeal customers

(2) Information search: Consumers commence to search for the product’s information though

commercial, personal, public or experiential source By looking for information, consumers’knowledge and awareness about the product or brand are elevated

(3) Alternative evaluation: after knowing the price, product quality, etc, customers began to make

(5) Post-purchase decision: this is when the consumers examine the real quality of the product theypurchased, to see if it meets their expectations Kotler et al (1999) stated that, customers would feelcontented if the product lives up to their expectation.Additionally, Evans (2008) explained thenecessary of social feedback cycle as a purchase tool (Figure 3) In specific, when searching out aproduct or service on traditional marketing channels such as television, radio, or newspapersconsumer can recheck its credibility on Internet According to figure 3, the purchase funnel can beextended largely through social media, and also with the help of post-purchase word of mouth anduser-generate contents It can be understood that the post-purchase conversation is built up andvalidated via the collective wisdom of crowd

The buying funnel can be extended largely through social media, and also with the support of purchase word of mouth and user-generate contents

Figure3: Purchase validation tool (Evans 2008)

2.4.2 E-Word-of-Mouth establishment or Searching Information Behavior

Based on rapid growth of the technology and Internet access, individuals can be online and shareopinions on services/brands that they have had experiences with It is the reason of the change fromtraditional Word-of-mouth (WOM) into Electronic-WOM (EWOM); and it becomes important socialimplication for referral and affect to customer (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Chu and Kim, 2011) Asconsumers learn about a new brand, they have tendency to trust more in product’s peer review morethan marketing massage from brand owners Through looking for personal reviews and brandexperience on product, they participate in EWOM conservation and put it to their purchasing process

“Peer – to peer – EWOM” is generated through various social media platforms which users active forproduct/ brand

Share Brand experience and Searchable EWOM to The model of ‘Consumer Decision-MakingJourney in a Digital World’ (Below Figure 4) states the cycle how consumer got influence of EWOM

as well as become a part of this cycle by sharing their own experience on products Based on the need

to get knowledge to a new brand (Stimulus), consumers go online to search information and havetendency to use online peer reviews (Zero Moment of Truth) and then themselves share theirexperiences on products (Third Moment of Truth), according to Muzellec and Moran (2014) Via thisprocess, consumers will be therefore given opportunity to establish their moments of truth (MOTs),which will instantly create a connection between users with a particular brand

Figure 4: Consumer Decision-Making Journey in a Digital World (Muzellec and Moran, 2014)

EWOM can be done via posting pictures or video clips on the Internet forums or social channels (Tom

et all., 2012), which will create a real experiences and enhance the level of trust from the consumers,who are searching information about a brand The more consumers sharing the same opinions, themore information that a consumer can base on to evaluate the information This has thereforedemonstrated that consumers these days have been given sufficient access and choices to share theiropinions and experience about a specific brand or product, which will be accessed by a large scale ofinformation searchers globally

Besides, Mangold and Faulds (2009) has presented a new communication paradigm, figure 5indicating that the independency of social media platforms has amplified consumers’ ability tocommunicate with one another, in which has profoundly affected consumer behavior, and hasbestowed consumers with power they have not previously experienced in the marketplace (Mangoldand Faulds 2009.)

Figure 5 The New Communication Paradigm (Mangold and Faulds 2009)

2.4.3 Social media and the information searching information

Information plays a vital role of motivating people to consume brand-related content Pre-purchaseinformation refers to reading product reviews or threads on brand communities in order to make well-considered buying decisions (Muntiga et al., 2016)

Consumers’ evaluation process for a product can be influenced largely by external opinions (Huberand McCann, 1982) This means that after externally collecting enough information, a consumer willstart to assess a certain brand or product

Constantinides and Fountain (2008) asserted that consumer’s preference for a product and theirshopping decisions are largely formed through online marketers such as friends and family usingsocial media forum Therefore, social media users have a power to indirectly influence consumers’purchasing patterns and behavior

Recognizing how fast the social media can spread widely, Constantinides and Fountain (2008) haverecommended an innovative Stimuli and Response model based on Kotler’s (1994) framework.According to the presented diagram, see Figure 5, in a traditional shopping environment, traditionalmarketing mix (e.g ads on radio, newspaper, television, and so on) will influence customers’decisions the most, other uncontrollable stimuli (e.g values, societies, demographics, perceptions, and

so on) also have some impacts on customers However, with social media and Web 2.0, the influencewill be able to reach the online marketing mix (e.g emails, banners, cooperate websites, and so on)and the social media experiences This level of extension has gone over the control of manager.(Constantinides and Fountain, 2008)

Figure 6 Stimuli and Response model (Constantinides and Fountain 2008)

Schivinski and Dabrowski (2013) had assessed 302 online surveys about the impact of social media topurchase intention and they pointed out that user-generated social media communication had apositive impact on consumer-based brand equity The same conclusion was drawn from the researchwith 441 respondents of Laroche et.al (2013)

3.1 Research Methodology – Research Design

Research design is a structured framework in order to have a deep insight in the research problems (Malhotra & Birks, 2007; Janet, 2009) Additionally, it also help the researchers to

investigate more problems by using questions for instant “ what will be examined”, “ with or in whom”, “ in what time” and “ how” according to Janet ( 2009) Thus, a research design will

clearlypoint out steps need to do for the researcher conducting their work effectively That is why a research design need to be planned as detail and clear as possible (Toledo-Pereyra, 2012) which emphasizes the importance of a good research design to collect sufficient data for objectives of project Malhotra and Birks (2007) have illustrated a design framework for marketing researchers as figure 7 below:

Figure 7: A classification of marketing research designs (Malhotra & Birks, 2007)

However, the researcher will base on the nature of information to select adopt appropriate researchmethod (Janet, 2009) Thus, review which is known as academic theory ground of research,exploratory design is applied in the research, included both quality and quantity research methods toeffectively dig in the research problems and objectives

3.2 Exploratory/Descriptive Research

Exploratory method is a flexible technique which can be applied for understanding marketingphenomena, especially when some marketing problems are very hard measured by quantitativemanner or when precise measurement cannot characterized for qualities (Malhotra and Birks, 2007).Thus, this method can allow the researcher to investigate the problem in depth before applying othermethods have greater insight in the phenomena

Besides, descriptive research can help researcher figure out new information, facts or trends (Reiss,2011) While, many opinions (Malhotra & Birks, 2007 and Reiss , 2011) claimed that descriptiveresearch is only use structured and statistical method in gathering and analyzing data From abovestated theories , it can be seen that descriptive research method play an main role to explore problemsand dig further grounded on current findings

Additionally, exploratory research will be started to gather more knowledge and data in the beginningstate of research Then, the results will be combined with data collecting from structured descriptiveresearch design Qualitative data is the generally outcomes from exploratory research On thecontrary, more statistic results were given from descriptive methods

3.3 Qualitative Data Collection

According to statements from section 3.1 that qualitative data can be sourced from both Exploratoryand Descriptive Research methods Existing attitude and opinions could be exploited from applyingqualitative research (Bradley, 2013, Chatha, Butt and Tarid , 2015) Moreover, qualitative can helpresearcher to gain more information in “ real” life practice included attitudes, behaviours, trends andneeds of people (Miles and Huberman cited in Guercini, 2014; Chrzanowska’s statement, 2002).Another an important point is that theory built from qualitative research is considered more persuasiveand have more relation to stated theories from previous or current research (Henwood and Pidgeon,1992) As a result, findings analyzed from qualitative research might act important findings forunderstanding the research problems

Thus, after view both advantage and disadvantage of qualitative methods, by using qualitativeapproach, investigators can represent samples via qualitative approach to extensively investigate intorepresented samples via both qualitative data, which will be showing knowledge into their behavior.Method of data collection is chosen semi – structured question conducted with 15 interviews withtheir willingness and strict guarantee on relevant ethic issues

Qualitative Method – Interview

Regarding to the explanation and definition on qualitative research method in previous session,qualitative data is seen as such a complex data that require suitable data collecting approach thatenable researcher to fully explore the problem Interview has been seen as a popular approach inqualitative data gathering process by many researchers in previous It is defined as group of chosenpeople that allow researcher to form connection with participants to collect data (Kitzinger, 1995).Thus, these people are those who represent the sample that are believed to be give the most relatableresults By establishing relationship with participants, research will be able to tackle into variousangles of problems that enable him/her to have insightful data, including opinions from participants

on his/her research topic The data collected and analysed from this research can act as a foundation

of knowledge to explore in the next research methods

In related to above definition on qualitative research methods presented sessions, qualitativeapproaching is chosen due to its ability to gain relevant and complex data represents for diversityphenomena / problems such as marketing problems Interview is often chosen as a popular tool inqualitative method as an efficient way to gain useful data through establishing connection toparticipants Participants will be selected to conducting interview and gather information from that.Collected information is sufficient when interview can help researcher touch to various angles ofproblems to have a general view on problems both from side of the researchers and interviewees.Hence, the researcher will aim for a sample size of 15 interviews for conducting both by direct face toface interview or through telephone/Skype interview

CHAPTER 4- DATA FINDING

This chapter aims to present and analyze data collected from 15 interviews from youth age whose age ranged from 22- 30, all from Asia (Chinese, Vietnamese & Japanese) Responses from the interview are kept anonymous and strictly confidential

4.1 Back ground

This following part presents analysis sourced from the data collected from interview The structured interview is applied and questions are designed based on aims and objectives of theresearch Each questions and response enhanced with theories and they have been adjusted to helprespondents to easily understand and avoid any misunderstanding

semi-The interview was conducted with 15 Asian seapking English living both in Vietnam & UnitedKingdom and mostly are familiar of the reseasrcher Some are directly face to face, some are throughphone call This can allow interviewee more freely express their opinions Questions are dividedfollowings objectives of the research: elements motivate people using social channel to searchinformation on brands, leveel trust of people in social media references and information on productsand level attitude of people after searching information on products In the following sections,findings and analysis was presented; while further conclusion and further suggestion

4.2 Data finding analysis

Firstly, the question on gender and ages of interviewee is proposed to identify segmentations of ageand gender toward their concern and usage of social media Among 15 interviews, male counted 3people comparing to 12 females

Age ranged from 21 years old to 30 years old, mostly is students or officers who have high education( at least high school level) can speak English and have personal laptops or smartphone to connect tointernet That is why it is understandable that All of them having Facebook account and at least onemore other social media ( Twitter, Instargarm and so on)

From the interviews, with all people understand the “ social media “ word when be mentioned, and

4.2.1 Objective 1: To understand elements motivate consumers to use social channels in order to

access more information about a particular brand

*** To understand which social media popular to use and its usage to estimate the weight of socialmedia toward people who have been and are potential customers, those questions was designed toexplore how social media usage of interviews, which is their favourite and how much time they spentfor social media to explore potential of product information on facebook might affect to consumers Following are data results from questionnaires:

1 What kind of social media channels do you often use? Which one is the most favourite one?

The answer is once again confirm wide awareness and usage of various social media channel likeother study has stated (Kaplan & Haenlein,2010; Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2013; Gensler et al 2015).All people said they have social media account and the most frequently usage is facebook

2 How is your time spending for social networking websites?

All interviewees replied that their usage is more than 1 hours – at least starting from 2 hours til wholeday online by smartphone 3/15 people ( around 20% even stated that they spend whole day onlinefaceboook on smartphone for convenient chatting and conservation with friends and clients orcolleaguges

3 What is the main purpose of using social media? For example: facebook

100% answers mentioned to using facebook to communicate with friends People said they usefacebook to communicate with their friends (15/15) 1 and colleagues (11/15, approximately 73% ofresponses)

4 How often or how do they think on searching product on social media?

Unexpectedly, only 3/15 people, accounted for 20% of response, stated that they went to social mediafor product information search Buy if yes, only simple products such as clothing and books Othersare shoes, Cds, small decorations

Respondants no 13 is Japanese and he said because for Japanese comparative price and functionssuch as kakaku.com or amazon.com

4.2.2 Objective 2: To explore to what extend customers trust the content written in social channels

they access to

In onder to examine how customer trust in content written in social media channels, those belowquestions are designed to figure what interviewees think on this matter

5 How do you think on information of products you found on social media channels?

For this question, all participant stated that social media as an optional referral source Butbackground of all interviews is adult now and well education (all graduated from university andspeaking English so that all of them will said they will check or judge if information by themselves 2 /

15 people

6 How many percentages you trust on television advertising? While how many percentage you trust

on social media review, word of mouth? What is criteria for searching media?

The answer of this question, 7/15 people stated it is 50 % & 50 % And from the whole interviews, allmentioned to they trust in review from people they know well such as friends or families

Besides, there are 10/15 interviews answered nowadays there are a lot tricks from increasing Like ,Page view or Page ranking or Bad comments, rumors created by producers themselves or theircompetitors that make these rich information from social media need to be critically adjusted

7 What is a social media page that you make you trust?

All mentioned on same criteria such as clear and nice photos and information of products Besides,interviewee No 13 and No 14 mentioned that reviews on product should be both positive and negativeopinions And they pay attention to bad review of product more than just merely seeing nicecomments

Through above questions, all respondants recognized take credit to product reference on social mediasourced from people they know or trustable (clear rich information, nice rating) when they trying toknow more on product before their buying

4.2.3 Objective 3: To explore customers’ attitudes level after making decisions related to

information gathered from social channels

All following questions are designed to how social media might effect to consumer purchase decision

8 Have you ever buy something on social media such as through facebook after see facebook advertising pop up or reading a good comment on product posted on social media plat form ?

For this question, 14/15 interviewees (93% )said they at least once time buy product from socialmedia eventhough they do not have expect to search their desired product through social media

9 Have you ever reviewed or shared your experience on a product on social media? How did you make it?

Only 3/15 interviewees said they posted images or their comments on product on facebook, however12/15 said they are too lazy to post their comments on social media Or they said simply d not want

to make online argument with a reason sometime it is a mess of informative chaos

10 What is their habit when buying a thing, specially in online shopping or habit to search information?

All said they use Google for searching information As the procedure off decision buying isquitesimilar: Google for prices and search reviews of products, then comparing and choose the mostconvenient place with cheapest price

11 What is their opinion on facebook shopping trend?

All agreed with facebook shopping trend is increasing because it has a huge volume users Otherreasons are mentioned such as: quick access, cheap cost, were recognized

12 How is your habit when want to buy something?

All interviews stated that they will go Google for searching information of products Generally, allseems had the simple routine: Google product information and then search reviews on products (fromtrusted websites, forums or social media platforms) then deciding and buy the cheapest one for them.4/15 of interviewees mentioned share of people on trusted forums is very an important things for them

13 How is your opinion on rumors on facebook and have you ever being affected by rumors on products on social media?

Only 2/5 people said they trust in it – in some aspect with the reason is kind of “there is no fire, there

is no smoke” Most of them have the same reflect on products

Through above questions, all respondants recognized take credit to product reference on social mediasourced from people they know or trustable ( clear rich information, nice rating) when they trying toknow more on product before their buying

From above answers, it can be drawn that most people will go Google for search information ofproducts before comparing and decide to buy

However, 12/15 respondents admit never review on products on social media or rate product onplatform, they said reason are mainly do not have time or too much lazy or afraid of public conflict

Besides, 12/15 interviewees judge social media references source is only take account 40 – 50 %their trust

All users admit that Facebook shopping trends is understandable with similar explain in big volume ofusers, easy to use and cheap or free for advertising or spread information in some ways It indicatesfacebook now widely recognized its advantage and marketers or salers has took its advantage quitewell Additionally, more than half (11/15 people) of users admit if they are caught by attractingadvertise on facebook, they will click and consider products The left still following the routine: know

on product through social media but still go to store to double check it in fact; except someone isreally close already used it and strongly recommend it

From reply answers question, indicate for marketer on how social media users consider their trust oninformation posted on it Mostly they need clear information, images and pictures with both bad andgood comments of products Specialized comparing characteristic and price of products is alsomentioned as much more trustable reference for searching relevant products, especially for Japanese ( For example : amazon.com; kahoku.com)

Additionally, bad rumors on product seems is not really bad impression on some smart users 14/10people prefer to consider bad rumors but not seriously believe in it All said they will try to figure outand decide later by themselves and will more pay attention to this weak points when comparing withother similar products

CHAPTER 5 - DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Based on data findings from chapter4, this chapter presents the data analysis and discussion in related with literature review provide.

Firstly, the finding of reasearch already approve recently researchs on effectiveness of social media

to brand image, brand identity, brand value, brand equity, brand awareness and brand recall,especially an influence instruments for marketers to consumers Through the results of study, allinterview has at least more than 01 social media account (Facebook and Youtube or Facebook andInstargram Others popular social media chanels are also mentioned such as ) and daily spendtime onfacebook With frequency to online on facebook (at least 2hour per day from interview reply),facebook becomes an important social media channel, or at least in this boundary off thiss research, isthe most favourited and powerful tools to add brand value, brand equity, brand recall and brandawareness due to repeated daily reviews on products and pop- up banners on facebook It is similar toresearch of Percy and Rossister (1992) and Wood (2000) The reason to make the power of socialmedia to consumer purchase behavior is that they can supply “ moment of truth” and let consumercan be in real review on brand experience from other users that incredible recognized as one ofmotivation in searching relevant information on product that affect to consumer purchase behaviorprocess, starting from product awareness until search relevant information and then select amongsuitable choices (Mangold and Faulds 2009; Constantinides and Fountain 2008 and Kotler et al.1999)

However, contrast to high expect to receiving of big response on searching brand / products on socialmedia channels, only few people (3/15, accounted 30% of interviewee) replied they directly searchproducts on social media channel All of interview said they using Google first and then using Google

to find reviews on products/ brand Although all of them are still take reviews, word of mouth,especially from people whom know well In conclusion, it can be draw from finding results thatreview on products on social media still be considered as a reference source before decidingpurchasing of interviewees

Based on opinions of a trustable social page of a brand in which presents rich images and information

on brand, lot of interaction both bad and nice review, will be much more gain trust level towardscustomers

Besides, once again, data findings with results of 100% people searching product information oninternet before buying also proved that consumer nowadays seem to be smarter to critically searchinginformation and reviews around the products before locating the best reasonable sellers among similarbrands (Muzellec and Moran, 2014; Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004; Chu and Kim, 2011) Also, all said

at least once time pay attention to brand/ products pop up on facebook or from them, they decided tobuy it It indicates that reviews on social medias and can make consumers gain more attention andfavour by its frequency pop up on social media platforms or their brand social media page be builtinteractively and professionally to consumers While, a conservational marketing policies thatencourage consumers to review more on product or share their images with product can be attract canhelp add value to brand and brand equity as well as increase brand recall and brand awareness(Hollebeck et al.,2014; Kim and Ko, 2012; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).

Additionally, to identify trust level or can be assumed as the influence of social media news andrumors on consumer purchasing behavior, regarding to the impact of rumors on social media and thecomparison between television advertising and social media advertising, results comes out that socialmedia advertising is still evaluated as equal to television (50% of interviewees) In while, othersexpressed more belief to social media Consumers had tendency to believe that television is just onlyone side marketing- sale calling massage from producers which are less trustable than advertising onsocial media if through reputed social media channels (Joseph 2013) This finding once againsupported theories of social media has positive impact to consumer of latest research on purchasingbehaviors (Hennig-Thurau et al.,2004; Chu and Kim, 2011) The power of Word of Mouths (EWOM)that spread on forums and social media once again was confirmed through finding research

However, there is still one point from research finding is might quite different to other recent publish

on popularity of sharing experience from consumers on social media( Only 3 of 15 interviewed saidthey post review on their usage experience

According to many reports which are meant to help entrepreneurs make profit from this trend, manypeople think Facebook is the best way to approach potential customers That’s the reason why theycreated their own fan page without any hesitation But, unfortunately, what happens in the customermind may not like what businessman think By discovering the awareness of social media on decisionmaking process, this research was performed in consumer’s perception, especially Asian people todemonstrate the effect of social media on their decision

Furthermore, this research not only helps companies have the comprehensive view but also presentspotential threats or opportunities of social media For example, entrepreneurs can find out the mostsuitable ways to impact their customer’s decision Or, they can see the reason why their marketingcampaigns were not success like they had expected

The main purpose of this research was to discover how social media impacts on making decisionprocess of consumers The three objectives of this dissertation were:

a) To explore which elements motivated consumers to use social channels in order to find moreinformation of a particular branch

b) To find out how customers trust the content written on social channels

c) To understand consumer’s attitudes after making decisions with the information gathered fromsocial channels

6.2 Research findings

Social media has changed both consumers and entrepreneurs The findings of this research are based

on the theories of the theoretical framework in Chapter 2 and 3 And theories in Chapter 4 andChapter 5 are used to analyze the data collected from the interview

The theories and the data analysis of this research have shown that social media impacts onconsumer’s opinion and then their purchase decision

Basically, all platforms on social media contain two-way communication flow, which is verytheoretically and practically Because of that, marketers have to replace their outdated conception withthe new one According to data collected from many individuals, consumers approach to themarketing, advertisement or polished slogans via other customers’ experiences, especially from theirword of mouth In other words, online marketing is all about creating contents which consumerinvolved In addition, this type of marketing is also about creating a good relationship betweencompany and its consumer The result of this research has shown that consumers in this new era ofmarketing are empowered And their position is the centralized gravity Many interviewees have citedthat owing to the very effective platform of social media, they can easily communicate to each otherand also the company.

However, while people still believe in traditional advertising, social media still cannot be considered

as an effective marketing tool In theory, information through mass media is received passively In themeantime, people find information initiatively via social media According to the research, manyconsumers consider traditional media is one way marketing That’s the reason why even receivinginformation from traditional media, they still hardly understand it

The accessibility and transparency of information which social media, especially Facebook, hasoffered to consumers have been indicated throughout the entire research Nowadays, consumers caneasily access to needed information in a wider and faster way Therefore, they seem to becomesmarter Any contents that are not qualified or not controlled will be eliminated in many ways beforethe consumer decide to buy or go to the store to test the product directly People usually expect togather real experiences usage in both positive and negative ways But, those must from trusted sitesand social media channels In addition, the experts, relatives or friends are also considered as trustedsources

Regard to the business context, the negative comments on social media can be very dangerous for thebusiness Because they can be easily spread and it’s really bad for company’s reputation Inresponding to the purchase validation tool (Evans 2008), social media still have an important place inmarketing nowadays because it created a link between post-purchased word of mouth and the makingdecision process of consumers Specifically, thanks to the word of mouth and user’s contents on socialmedia, the marketers are able to make a data system of experience for potential customers in the

to find out what form negative feelings among consumers And then they have to encourage them tojoin in the conversation

These days, social media has changed the communicate model between consumers and companywhich is too familiar in mass media The companies don’t have to send messages to their consumerand prospects anymore Now, social media has created an effective web communication betweenthem and their consumers From there, this special communication channel has made manycommunities among its users and impact on every stage of their decision making process

As a result, this research came to the following conclusion: Asian consumers understand the impact ofinformation and references on social media to their branch awareness and purchase decision On theother hand, they are seems to be less willing to share their word of mouths to other potentialcustomers on the social media According to the gathered data and theories related to consumerbehavior and contemporary frameworks regarding social media marketing, the essence of consumerbehavior did not change anything even after the birth of social media People remain seldom straight

to the buying decision They still have to gather information before purchasing anything

6.3 Limitation

Although theories were approved through data gathered from interviews and the research was provide

a certain overview to the situation, it still exists many limitations

In the previous chapter, all Asian individuals across Finland cannot be represented in the findings.Because some psychological factors is related to the decision making process, it may create severalbehavior actions And, the usage of social media is also influenced by many different elements likesocial factor, education level … And, with summary of 15 interviews; the result may not be veryobjective, because it can be highlighted according to the researcher’s intention

6.4 Future Research

Because of the limited time and scope of this research, many theories concerned to the subject werementioned But, they were covered in a general way to form a big picture to the readers For thisreason, if the further research can be conducted, a comprehensive survey will be performed to servethe research objective

The research would be much more interesting and informative if it had a case company as a reference

By studying this company, we can easily make a comparison between what entrepreneurs think andwhat their consumers actually concern The result is expected to help the company gather informationand find out actual strategy to solve the situation

Because many consumers do not feel free to generate the word of mouth to others via social media,this may imply that the mission of marketers is to find out any solution to encourage these consumers

to participate in the conversation Hence, the future research can be performed base on this idea Thisresearch may investigate the cause of this feeling and how to change it in order to improve socialmedia as an effective marketing tool

Furthermore, if this future research could be applied for companies, the theories would be moreaccurate Because many of these theories are developed and meant to help companies find the bestway to change from the traditional marketing approach to the new one Then, the results could bemore persuasive

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