An Investigation of the impact of Social media marketing on customer

purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case study of Asda

Signed Statement
Here it is certified that the dissertation work has been conducted only be me and is not
submitted for the same purpose of any other degree
______Name________
___, ___, 2015

Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge the contribution of my supervisor who gave me perfect
suggestion that was required to complete the dissertation work.
I specially thank to those correspondents including the customers and sales persons of
Sainsbury who gave their valuable time and attended the survey questionnaire.
At the very last, I would like to thank all the related parties with the dissertation.
_____Name____

Abstract:

Social media marketing has become a recent phenomenon in the current business world
because opens a path of free, direct and constant communication between different types
customers which ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers.
The objectives of the research is to investigate different aspects and importance of social
media marketing enables the company more competitive by generating opinions, reviews and
comments of the different customers which reflects the current market conditions and
scenarios that will help to design more customer oriented strategy for getting more customer
insight and customer preferences. Researcher has successfully attained all the objectives in
the research.
The brief discussion about the social media marketing is given in the research by showing
different aspects of it.Besides the customer purchase intent is fully described here. Social
media is emerging as an important tool for influencing customers and ultimately their
purchase intent which refers that both social media and customers purchase intent are corelated.
Research methodology was properly discussed and the reader can easily get acquainted with
several terms like research design, research strategy, research method and so forth. This
chapter provides the opportunity to the readers to clearly and easily understand the reasons
and justifications of using a particular research design, research strategy, research method,
data collection and sampling method and data analysis and techniques. Besides, the reader
can have an overview over the limitation of the research and ethical aspect that must be
considered in the research.
Researcher found through its survey questions that respondents are highly positive towards
the survey questions regarding the impact of social media on customer purchase intent.
Almost 80% of the respondents were agreed about the survey questions about the customer
purchase intent. Regression analysis showed all the independent variables are effective and
have some impacts on the customer purchase intent. Besides, correlation analysis shows
positive impacts on customer purchase intent. The average mean and mode value also support
the statement.

At the end, few recommendation were made to make the situation improve its current social
media marketing strategy for be more effective in gaining customer purchase by influencing
their intent. Social media marketing mainly aims to increase the trafficking in the social
media sites and its websites to present or demonstrate different offers, products, schemes,
reviews, information and other things for influencing customer perception and getting more
response.

Table of Content

Abstract:................................................................................................................... 3
1

Chapter One: Introduction:..............................................................................9

1.1

Background of the research:.....................................................................9

1.2

Rationale of the research:................................................................................10

1.3

Problem statement..................................................................................11

1.4

Aim of the research:................................................................................ 11

1.5

Objectives of the research......................................................................11

1.6

Questions of the research.......................................................................12

1.7

Research hypotheses..............................................................................12

1.8

Scope of the research:............................................................................ 12

1.9

Structure of the research........................................................................13

Chapter Two: Literature Review.....................................................................15

2.1

Social media marketing...........................................................................15

2.2

Importance of Social media marketing....................................................16

2.3

Approaches of Social media marketing...................................................18

2.3.1

Twitter............................................................................................... 18

2.3.2

Facebook........................................................................................... 19

2.3.3

LinkedIn............................................................................................ 19

2.3.4

Instagram......................................................................................... 19

2.3.5

You Tube............................................................................................ 20

2.4

Customer purchase intent:......................................................................20

2.5 Relationship between social media marketing and customer purchase

intent:............................................................................................................... 23
2.6
3

Conceptual framework:...........................................................................25

Chapter Three: Research methodology.........................................................27

3.1

Research design...................................................................................... 27

3.2

Research Philosophy...............................................................................27

Epistemology................................................................................................. 27
Interpretivism................................................................................................ 28
Phenomenology............................................................................................. 28
Positivism...................................................................................................... 28
3.3

Research Approach.................................................................................28

3.4

Research Strategy................................................................................... 30
5

3.5

Research Method..................................................................................... 31

3.6

Data Collection Method...........................................................................32

3.7

Data Sampling Method............................................................................32

3.8

Data Analysis tools and techniques........................................................34

3.9

Limitation of the study............................................................................ 34

3.10 Ethical consideration............................................................................... 35

4

Chapter Four: Result & Discussion.................................................................36

4.1

Result...................................................................................................... 36

4.1.1

Demographic Profile of the Respondents..........................................36

4.1.2

Cronbach's alpha.............................................................................. 37

4.1.3

Facebook........................................................................................... 38

4.1.4

Google Plus....................................................................................... 39

4.1.5

Twitter............................................................................................... 40

4.1.6

LinkedIn............................................................................................ 41

4.1.7

YouTube............................................................................................. 43

4.1.8

Instagram......................................................................................... 44

4.1.9

Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)........................................................45

4.1.10 Correlation Analysis..........................................................................46

4.1.11 Regression Analysis..........................................................................47
4.1.12 Which one is the most attractive and influencing social media?......48
4.1.13 Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for
purchasing the products of ASDA?................................................................48
4.1.14 Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social
media? 49
4.1.15 Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than
Facebook?...................................................................................................... 50
4.2
5

Discussion............................................................................................... 51

Chapter Five: Conclusion and recommendation............................................56

5.1

Conclusion............................................................................................... 56

5.2

Recommendations:................................................................................. 58

References........................................................................................................... 60
6

Appendices.................................................................................................... 64

Appendix A.......................................................................................................... 64
PARTICIPANT SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE....................................................64
Appendix B.......................................................................................................... 69
CONSENT FORM................................................................................................ 69
6

List of Figure
Figure 1: Descriptive result of Facebook.........................................................................38
Figure 2: Descriptive result of Google Plus......................................................................39
Figure 3: Descriptive result of Twitter............................................................................. 40
Figure 4: Descriptive result of LinkedIn..........................................................................41
Figure 5: Descriptive result of YouTube..........................................................................42
Figure 6: Descriptive result of Instagram.........................................................................44
Figure 7: Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI).............................................45
Figure 8: Descriptive result of Most Attractive social Media.................................................47
Figure 9: Descriptive result of Which Social Media Customers are influenced to purchase the products
............................................................................................................................ 48
Figure 10: Descriptive result of Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social
media..................................................................................................................... 49
Figure 11: Descriptive result of Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than
Facebook................................................................................................................ 50

List of Table
Table 1: Descriptive result of Demographic Profile of the Respondents....................................36
Table 2: Descriptive result of Cronbach's alpha.................................................................37
Table 3:Descriptive result of Facebook...........................................................................37
Table 4: Descriptive result of Google Plus.......................................................................39
Table 5: Descriptive result of Twitter..............................................................................40
Table 6: Descriptive result of LinkedIn...........................................................................41
Table 7: Descriptive result of Friend-Feed........................................................................42
Table 8: Descriptive result of Instagram..........................................................................43
Table 9: Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)...............................................44
Table 10: Correlation Matrix........................................................................................ 45
Table 11: Model Summary of Customer purchase intent......................................................46
Table 12: Coefficient of Regression................................................................................ 46

1 Chapter One: Introduction:

1.1 Background of the research:

Asda is the name of largest retail chain stores in UK which was formed by a group of farmers
from Yorkshire (north of Britain) in 1965 and it was expanded in south in seventies and
eighties by the process of bought rival chain of superstores Gateways in 1989 (asda.com,
2015. Asda has board range of retail business sector such as food, clothing, general
merchandise, toys and financial services. Asdas main aim is to attract customer by offering
low price at convenient and then they express a slogan that is saving money, everyday and
its promotion also based on solely on price. In 1999, ASDA got the membership of the WalMart family after that they experienced the number of customers are increased at signified
rate.
Social media marketing is the process of using social media channel for promoting and
marketing a companys product or service that will satisfy customers need at desire level of
expectation. There are some social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Skype,
Instragram, LinkedIn, etc by which a company can reach their potential customers or to
current customers that also helps to gain customers attention about product and service or to
attain customer purchase intent. According to Samson et al. (2014) Customers purchase intent
are always influenced by several factors that is most important for the company increase the
customers purchase intent by which company can achieve their objectives.faulds and
mangold (2014) said that Social media is very essential in influencing customer purchase
decision because customers are always influenced by different massage or content that gives
a clear idea about product or service which will purchase or not. It is also important to get
desire response from the customers that helps to the marketer to decide on what media
channels work effectively in the field of social media marketing. Besides, social media will
help the Asda to tackle competition in very precise way by different visual, verbal and written
communication to meet the query and interest of the customers (Yu et al., 2013). Social media
marketing is a Next big think thats yet temporary but proper understanding and
implementing of social media marketing tools company can gain and attain customer intent
that Asda have. In the social media every company who are in social media marketing they
8

should recognize their brand or identities to the audiences or customers that helps to make
customer loyalty.
According to Werbin (2011), When an advertiser provides an ads by using social media such
as facebook, twitter, instagrametc audience can ignore, in this case advertiser needs to know
how attract and influence the audience to read or see the ad and try to provide most attractive
and influential content that helps to attract to users of the social media. Unlike traditional
media that is often cost prohibitive to many company, but social media is a field in which
there is no need of astronomical budgeting for these any company can use social media to
promote their product or service to customer who know or dont know about them (faulds
and mangold, 2014). Zerralla said in her book, by using social media company can directly
connect with customers in whom customers are also interested to engage with company to
review the post about product and service, rate customer service and ask question from which
customers are well informed.

1.2

Rationale of the research:

Social media marketing is now widely used tools by Asda because Asda is trying to keep
balance and appropriateness in its communication process where customer will directly
connected with the organisation, can involve in interactive communication, can be attracted
by showing and giving different current news and offers, can get appropriate and meaningful
messages through different media, which can help Asda to gain customers attention and
finally gain their purchase decision in favour of it(Samson et al., 2014). Asda always wants to
get maximum number of purchase from the customers by providing value proposition
through its message by using different media where social media marketing is most effective
tool in this area. Social media marketing is effective in increasing message impacts, customer
expertise, customer knowledge, media and audience fragmentation which all are helping in
gaining more customers purchase through influencing their intent (Werbin, 2011). Asda
needs to get customer purchase for making it more profitable and sustainable where social
media marketing is big player. So, proper investigation is needed to get the real situation on

the basis of Asda. In Facebook and twitter, Asda can post or upload content in which
customers or followers express their opinion by like, comment, and sometimes dislike.
This research will illustrate the co-relation between advertising affects increase in customer
purchase intent. This research will reflect the effectiveness of social media in influencing
customer purchase intent. Besides, different aspects or elements of social media will be
analysed by taking feedback of the customers which will enable Asda to get real customer
insight. Customer purchase decision making process will be analysed with different
perspective which will help to design effective social media marketing process.

1.3 Problem statement

This research is prepared to show investigation of the impact of social media marketing on
customer purchase intent. Here, researcher has faced the main problem which channels or
tools they should use in social media marketing that can reach to the ultimate customers.
Besides, customers are well interested to interact directly with companies by seeing and
reviewing the companys web site or other channel. On the other hand, researcher also has
faced a problem that they cant reach to the mass people or audience to collect the accurate
information about the impact of social media on their purchase intent. So, researcher should
follow the most popular social media by which an exact information can collect from the
users so that its gives an accurate research result.

1.4 Aim of the research:

The aim of the research is to analyseAsdassocial media marketing on customer purchase
intent.

1.5 Objectives of the research

This research has the following objectives:

To investigate different aspects and importance of Social media marketing taken by

Asda to attract customers.

To analyse customer purchase intent and different factors related with this of Asda.
To inquire the relationship between Social media marketing and customer purchase
intent of Asda.
10

To recommend Tesco to reshape Social media marketing in order to influence

customer purchase intent more effectively.

1.6 Questions of the research

The very questions of the research hence:

What are the Social media marketing used as strategy by Asda to attract customers?
What are the different social media sites used by Asda as part of social media

marketing?
What is the importance of Social media marketing for a retailing company a study on

the basis of Asda?

What is the current situation of customer purchase intent about the Asda?
Is customers possessed positive intent about Asdas product?
What are different factors and consideration affecting customer purchase intent of

Asda?
What is the relationship between relationship between Social media marketing and
customer purchase intent of Asda?

1.7 Research hypotheses

H0: There is a strong relationship between Social media marketing and customer purchase
intent of Asda.
H1: There is no any strong relationship between Social media marketing and customer
purchase intent of Asda.

1.8 Scope of the research:

This research is prepared on the basis of the social media marketing and customer purchase
intent; here researcher will discuss these issues thoroughly for getting full insight of them.
This research will reveal different aspects of the social media marketing and its importance
on the perspective of Tesco. This research will also show how customers make their purchase
decision and how organisation can influence the purchase intent to get the purchase in favour
of it. The effectiveness of social media marketing of Asda on customer purchase intent will
11

be discussed with proper analysis and proper investigation. Then required recommendation
will be made to improve the current situation to make it more effective.

1.9 Structure of the research

Chapter name

Description

Introduction

Here, research will give short introductory note

about

the

research

topic

and

company

information and involvement regarding her

research issues. The objectives, aims, questions,
hypotheses and problem statement is given here
for proper understanding of the research

Literature review

Here, researcher will discuss about different

findings, statement and conclusion of different
writers, researchers and academicians regarding
the research topic. A conceptual framework is
also given here.

Methodology

The methods and technics that are used in the

research by researcher are described here with
proper and appropriate justification.

Result and discussion

In this part, the result or data analysis will be

given in statistical data and then research will
explain all of them. Besides, research will also
discuss about the research findings and previous
research findings to compare the result.

Conclusion and recommendation

Conclusion will be made at last part where

research will show how much appropriate and
successful he is in attaining research objectives.
Besides, required recommendation will be made

12

for better and sustainable improvement.

13

Chapter Two: Literature Review

Here, the researcher will discuss about different findings, statement and conclusion of
different writers, researchers and academicians regarding the research topic. A conceptual
framework is also given here

2.1 Social media marketing

Social media marketing has become a buzzword in the current business world because opens
a path of free, direct and constant communication between different types customers which
ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers (Saboo et al.,
2015). According to Brennan and Croft (2012), social media marketing enables the company
more competitive by generating opinions, reviews and comments of the different customers
which reflects the current market conditions and scenarios that will help to design more
customer oriented strategy for getting more customer insight and customer preferences. Fotis
et al. (2011) has explained this is an era of information technology and free flow of
information needs to be insured by the organisation for making customers well informed and
knowledgeable for making purchase decision after considering several factors. Charron et al.
(2006) have argued that user generated contents are getting more preferences by the business
organisations as todays world is customer oriented and organisation always prefer to
manufaturer and sell goods which are preferred by the customers not by them, here social
media marketing is doing lo contribution by collecting customers opinions and providing
customers an opportunity to express their intended products from the company. Fredrich
(2009) has found that firms are now make affiliation with the social networking sites to catch
the attention of the customers more at the social networking sites and create attention and
preferences among the customers with lower cost than the traditional communication sites.
On the other hand, Saboo et al. (2015) believed that social media marketing is good for the
organisation but to some extent it makes customers over-powered which ultimately leads the
way to creating weakness and potential negative image in the market, besides some people
can intentionally create negative image by commenting unnecessary and false statements in
the social media sites. Robinson (2010) further added that any confidential information can
14

be leaked unintentionally through the social media sites and for getting effective result
organisation must engaged constantly and without any intervene to provide feedback to the
customers which sometimes generate cost for the organisation. The social media marketing of
Asda seems very potential and it is doing great in the organisational success perspective, but
social media has got some potential pitfalls and to analyse the Asdas social media impact a
deep analysis is needed. The proper combination and use of social networking sites and social
media websites to market a companys producy or service can be stated as social media
marketing (Wallack, 2002). According to Werbin (2011), social media marketing could
simply define as promotion of a brand or products through utilization of social media
channels. Wallack (2002) stated that social media marketing is used not only to promote, but
also emphasis the communication with the audiences. On the other hand, Taprial and Kanwar
(2012) has found social media marketing as the buzzword in the current business world
because it opens a path of free, direct and constant communication between different types
customers which ultimately brings the company closer and familiar with the target customers.
Under SMM, users could utilize the platforms of social media to present their own webpage,
products or services to communicate with the mass and listening to their opinions (Natarajan
et al., 2014). As that was what traditional advertising channels could not achieve,stated that
SMM has emerged as a complementary to the historical internet based promotion strategies
like email subscription newsletter and other internet based ad programs that influence
consumers purchasing behaviour. Social media is most often considered as UGC which may
include various elements like streaming videos, audios, blogs, wikis, posts, chats, images,
podcasting etc. that users in the internet system basically create(Veeck and Hoger, 2014).
Moreover, Lee (2014) has found that sssocial media facilitates not only the user generated
contents but also provides the opportunity to build relationship between various individual,
groups, communities and even with particular brand or products. It provides the opportunity
to make conversation, share information and develop online community.
For its diversified nature, social media marketing has become a key concern for the firm as a
critical tool for conducting its communication and marketing programs more quickly, easily
with less cost and more responses.

2.2 Importance of Social media marketing

SMM has got some identifiable advantages over traditional marketing communications.
Traditional marketing involves one way communication which often called push based
15

marketing (Kim and Ko, 2012). Veeck and Hoger (2014) further added that people sometimes
do not expect information but firms push the information regarding their products to the
people. Moreover, the traditional media doesnt include an interactive mode of
communication where social media marketing involves not only two way or interactive mode
of communication but also facilitates dialogue with people to have a better understanding
about their needs (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Social media marketing that passed along or
shared among friends had a more powerful impact on advertisement recall, brand awareness
and purchase intention than the traditional paid advertisements (Charron et al., 2006).
Between 2002 and 2004, reliance on television decreased from 51% to 41%; from 46% to
42% on newspaper and from 38% to 27% on printed magazines. The only increase shown
was the Internet; from 14% to 21% (Chen, 2013). Moreover, in the traditional communication
model, the components of promotional mix were organized in a collaborative way, such as
the schedule, format and medium of communications which were instructed collaboratively
between the firms and its paid agency (Taylor, 2008). However, the existence of social media
has changed the situation and information is no longer wholly controlled by the company.
Instead, customers can freely talk about the brands and products online and can feel free to
share with anyone they liked (Wallack, 2002).Apart from the advantages over traditional
marketing communications, it has also created other advantages too for people. First of all,
marketing with social media could certainly boost the exposure and awareness of a firm on
the internet and promote the brand and its products and communicate with potential
customers (Taprial and Kanwar, 2012). Besides, social media marketing was beneficial to
both business owners and consumers in the sense that an exchange platform was created. In
addition, activities under social media marketing (SMM) provided an occasion for reducing
consumers misunderstanding and prejudice towards the company (Richard, 2013).
Meanwhile, SMM could evaluate company value under the great platform provided by social
media for exchanging sources and opinions (Kim and Ko, 2012). In other words, SMM
helped enhancing and managing customer relationship for brands. More importantly, through
social media marketing, companies can build community for its products and business. Most
social media enable users to freely create and join communities such as Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and so forth (Joel, 2015). Communities are extremely valuable and beneficial to
marketers and entrepreneurs due to the extremely high accessibility to the right group of
target customers (Fisher, 2014). On the other hand, it made consumers feeling closer with the
brand and therefore might be a source of loyal customers (Taprial and Kanwar, 2012).
Moreover, it has widened the firms ability to motivate the customers purchase intention.
16

There are few challenges of social media marketing; first, the problem is the nature of social
media UGC (user generated content). Negative impacts to the reputation of the firm arise as
a large amount of information regarding its products and services were generated and
discussed among individuals without any control (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).Second, there
are numerous choices of social media and many companies are using them. Therefore, how to
choose the best and differentiate from competitors are also the top concern of marketers nowa-days (Taprial and kanwar, 2012).

2.3 Approaches of Social media marketing

The basic approaches which are called as passive strategies and active strategies have a
significant impact on the social media marketing (Veeck and Hoger, 2014). The passive
approach suggests that SM may be critical source for market related information and it may
have elements like blogs, social community contents and online organizations where people
can express and share their opinions and comment on brands, products and services (katona,
2013). Business firms can find a critical source to fetch information and analyse them
properly to have thorough review of what customers say about them and their brands and
grab the attention of the customers (Mitchell, 2002).On the other hand Das (2013) has added
that these passive media does not actively involve the marketing of brands and products of
the firms. They promote the brand passively with a limited view. Auker (2014) has found that
social media can not only be used as direct marketing and public relation tools but also can
act as a useful tool for communication through online advertising , sales promotion through
the various offers. He further added that these types of social media fall under the dimension
of active approach of social media. It includes major social Medias like Facebook, LinkdIn,
Youtube, Instagram and Twitter and many other forms of social networking sites and other
creativity work sharing sites.

2.3.1 Twitter

Twitter can be said to be as one of the most popular form of social networking sites that
creates the path and opportunity for the firms by enabling them to promote their products,
services and brands through the limited 140 characters that may appear on followers home
page (Joe, 2012). Twitter provides the opportunity to many firms to link Twitters messages
17

to the various websites photos, videos, facebook profile and various products websites. Its
announcement is considered as reliable mentorship and often facilitates many companies to
come up with certain advertising solution to some problem (Auker, 2014). The speed of
response and the response rate are quite high and it has got huge number of users and daily
tweet volumes are numerous (Schirr, 2013).

2.3.2 Facebook

Facebook is a form of social media which provides pages that are more elaborated and
fascinating than the twitter and other social networking sites (Akyol, 2013). Facebook can act
as an important tool for social media marketing by providing the firm the path for posting
various videos, images, testimonials, short and long description about the firm and its
various brands (katona, 2013). Woo (2014) has identified that Facebook has provided the
path for creating fan pages and through they encourage the firms to build online community
for their brands and by like and comment button consumers can interact with the firm and its
brands. Rojer (2011) futher added that the fan pages of facebook involves updated
information regarding the firm and its brands which provides enriched information and
motivates the fans and other people to fetch knowledge about the firm and its brands and
ultimately influence their purchase intention .

2.3.3 LinkedIn

LinkedIn is another popular form social networking sites that is customized for the business
professionals and provide the opportunity to the firms to prepare a professional profile for
themselves and their businesses to have good contact with the other professionals and
businesses (katona, 2013). Joe (2012) has found that members of LinkedIn can enjoy the
facility to promote their various social networking activities onto their LinkedIn profile page
through the use of various widgets. Woo (2014) further added that LinkedIn facilitates the
firms and various members to stimulate and generate sales leads, make purchase intention
among them and generate business partners as well. Rojer (2011) argued that LinkedIn
members have the opportunity to use Company pages which resembles the Facebook pages
and that facilitates the firms to promote their brands and products and make an interaction
with the customers. This site also acts as a source of information for employee recruitment
for the many firms.
18

2.3.4 Instagram

The user engagement rate of Instagram is incresing at higher rate than that of Facebook and
Twitter (Millson, 2012). A study estimates that Instagram has become more pervasive and
around 93% brands prefer instagram to be their part of promotional mix.(Veeck and Hoger,
2014). Taylor (2008) has identified the use of Instagram in case of firms and organizations, as
to catch the attention of their prescriptive spectators through storing and sharing imagery in a
rich, visual environment by enabling to interact with actual and potential customer base.
Dutta (2014) has further added that many firms now vigorously encourage and implement
their visual marketing strategy by using this mobile app by capturing the attention of the
market segment and stimulating purchasing interest of them on the companys products and
services. Instagram is supported by both android system and apple.

2.3.5 You Tube

This social media includes video and audio files that facilitates firms to post their stories,
events and successful entities in form of video blogging which may create a strong
stimulation in the mind of current and potential customers (Taylor, 2008). Millward (2012)
considered You Tube as carrying the reach media contents. Firms can also make their ads in
sync with various popular videos and music to promote their items and services. Firms also
have the facility to sponsor a video in the you tube.

2.4 Customer purchase intent:

Customer purchase intent is the most complex scenario of customer psychology because here
customers decided to purchase products from any particular brand or particular products after
evaluating certain key factors (Weinberg and Berger, 2011). Morison (2011) has stated
customer purchase intent can be influenced by several factors and organisation must focus on
this and design special strategies to attract this to get purchases in favour of it. Millson (2012)
has narrated that customers generally shows different type of purchase behaviour while
purchasing the products based on the involvement level and quality of the products and
organisation must put special consideration on these different behaviour to design different
types of strategies which will be effective towards different types of customers for getting
maximum purchases from them and making them loyal to the company. On the other hand,
19

Chinomona and Sandada (2013) explained that customer purchase intention can be
influenced by the demographic condition of the customers while geographic dimension is
also playing significant role because customers generally shows different purchase intention
based on the geographic conditions, which must be key consideration for the business
organisations at the time of designing strategies. Fan and Sokorai (2011) believed that for
making the organisation successful in the business market authority must take decision for
making and designing appropriate strategies to influence customer purchase behaviour and
intention because without doing so, it is not possible to get customers preference to get
purchase in favour of the organisation. According to Millson (2012) , sustainable growth and
development of the organisation is only possible through proper analysis of the customer
purchase intention and behaviour because it can help to make the organisation for profitable,
getting more liquid and overall gaining competitive advantages by getting purchase over the
competitors. Das (2014) has defined customer purchase intent is as the customers interest in
and likelihood of purchasing particular items (Kim and ko, 2010). Weignberg and Berger
(2011) critically emphasized that customer purchase intent is the most complex scenario of
customer psychology because here customers decided to purchase products from any
particular brand or particular products after evaluating certain key factors.

Figure: Hierarchy of effects model

Source: www.superbrand.net, (2015)

20

Huan (2012) explained that purchase intention was closely associated with awareness
(cognitive stage) and preference stage (affective stage) towards a brand or a product.
Consequently, the awareness, knowledge and preference would form an attitude towards the
brand and product which in turn affecting consumers buying intention. Customer
relationship was formed by the attitude towards a brand and therefore purchase intention was
also to be influenced by this relationship (Lee and Lee, 2013). Cutomers purchase intention
can be influenced by several factors and firms must focus on this and design effective
strategies to attract them and get purchase in favour of them (Goel,2014). Morison (2014)
critically analyzed and found that customers typically show various purchased behaviour
while purchasing the products which are based on involvement level and quality of the
products and organisation must put special consideration on these different behaviour to
design deffernt strategies which will be effective towards different types of customers for
getting maximum purchases from them and making them loyal to the company. On the other
hand Huang

(2012) explained that customer purchase intention can be influenced by

demographic condition of the customers while geographic dimension is also playing

significant role because customers generally shows different purchase intention based on the
geographic condition of the customers, which must be key consideration for the business
organisation at the time of designing strategies. Le Roux and Kremer ( 2014) stated that for
attaining the success in the business market , marketers must make effective decision and
strategies to influence customer purchase behaviour and intention because it is not possible to
get customers preferences without doing so. According toMarsha l(2011), sustainable growth
and development of the firm is only possible through proper analysis of the customer
purchase intention and behaviour because it can help the firm to make the firm more
profitable, getting more liquid assets and over ally gaining competitive advantages by getting
purchase over the competitors.
Schirr (2013) has found that consumers make their purchase intention on a particular brand
or product based on the need of that product, availability of that product, quality and benefit
sought by the product, services associated with product and the available information of that
product. Fisher (2014) further added that before making a purchase of a new product and
brand, consumers go through several stages of buying readiness stages. Akyol (2013)
identified that the buyer readiness stages involve awareness, knowledge, liking, preference,
conviction and purchase. Among this the first two stages are called cognitive stage which
involves being aware about the brand and searching information about it. This information
21

search has become more comfortable because of the different form of social media.
According to (Marshal, 2011) in the present world, information is overloading online and
offline. Therefore, consumers purchase intention would easily be influenced by external
environmental factors during their decision process. For example, by participating in social
media activities, consumers would be exposed to tones of products information and
promotion and become aware of certain products. Russell (2012) has identified the fact that
by reading information of product and comments of others, they were able to acquire
knowledge so as to form liking and preference to the product. These are how external
environment especially social media, is influencing consumers purchase intention.
Consumers search the information regarding various brands and products from multiple
sources and form their attitude toward the firms brands and products (Saluja and Singh,
2014). Samson (2011) added that Based on the information and previous experiences about
products, they make the preferences and purchase intention regarding the product. Dutta
(2013) further added that In the past, they used to collect information from traditional
communicational channels like TV, Radio, Newspaper, Mail, Magazine, Billboards etc. But,
now they are more willing to search the information that are easily available to them and
social media marketing facilitates that availability of information more easily at their hand.
Weignberg and berger (2011) has got the evidence that consumers are switching from the
traditional sources of information to online information like Social media in the present
context. Social media has become a platform for mass communication and creating
influences on the customers mind and thus creating purchase intention in favour of their
brand (Piltz, 2013).
In sum, purchase intention can be used to estimate a consumers potential contributions to a
firm or brand. Thus understanding factors that are influencing customers purchase intent is
extremely significant to a firm. In this way, they could forecast their future profits, attract
new customers as well as retain their current customers.

2.5 Relationship between social media marketing and

customer purchase intent:
Social media is emerging as an important tool for influencing customers and ultimately their
purchase intent which refers that both social media and customers purchase intent are co22

related (Saluja and Singh, 2014). Weinberg and Berge (2011) have argued that people are
now engaging at huge rate in social media as an alternative of mainstream media and also
passing a significant time there, which can be taken as a chance to influence the customers
and their purchase intent by showing picture, live streaming about products, sharing
information and creating online word-of-mouth. Kumar (2014) further added that social
media marketing is getting so much popularity that almost every large organisation is now
introducing social media marketing because it opens a path to reach the target customers at
cheap cost, which can help the organisation to influence customer purchase intent. Besides,
Fan and Sokorai (2011) expressed that it helps to make the organisation transform into a click
and mortal company from the traditional brick and mortal company, which can help the
organisation to reach both online and on store customers by influencing their purchase intent.
Moreover, Lee (2013) expressed that social media marketing is really playing a vital role in
this information technology era by engaging more customers and attracting their purchase
intent. Levy (2013) has found that social media is flourishing as a critical tool for influencing
customers and persuading their purchase intention to the firms products and services which
indicates that both social media and customers purchase intent are correlated. Now people are
influenced more by external environmental factors and social media has performed a critical
role as a external source of information to the people and influencing their attitudes. Now,
consumers are more cling to several kinds of social media to conduct research on information
to assist their decision making (Suki, 2011). In particular, social networking sites had
significant impact on purchase decision of internet users visiting those sites (Weinberg and
Berger, 2011). They continued to point out consumers who visited social media to get
information made better purchase decision than those without. According to research done by
DEI Worldwide (2008), 70% of consumers gathered information from participating in social
media. Besides, 49% of these customers would make use of the information they obtained on
social media to make purchase decisions.
Moreover, Social media marketing was perceived as a more trustworthy source than
traditional marketing communication tools and promotional mix regarding to information and
products (, 2013). Now-a-days, consumers actively search for and sought various types of
product and service related information in the internet by interacting with the people on the
social networking sites. Many of them basically search for others comments again and again
before making purchase(Taylor, 2008). According to Blackshaw and Nazzaro (2006), over
60% of consumers trusted the comments posted by other users. Besides, 78%of worldwide
23

customers believed the reviews regarding products and services written by online consumers
than any other sources. Aljasir (2013) critically analyzed and found that social media
marketing has got more popularity that almost every large organisation is now introducing
social media marketing as it opens a path to reach the target customers at cheap cost, which
can help the organisation to influence customer purchase intent. Tuten and Solomon
(2013)stated that it helps the firm to turn itself from traditional brick and mortar to click and
mortar company, which can help the organisation to reach both online and on store customers
by influencing their purchase intent. This social media marketing is really playing a vital role
in this information technology by engaging more customers and attracting their purchase
intent.
Though social media marketing has got immense popularity, it is still essential to reappraise
the traditional media and social media marketing can be used in line with the traditional
media but not as the only mean of communication for the firm.

2.6 Conceptual framework:

Conceptual framework provides the opportunity to visualize a theoretical concept by
summarizing the theory, assumptions, rules and principles as a broad concept. It provides the
means to make a brief review of the theories at a glance within a short time period. A
conceptual framework regarding social media marketing and customer purchase intent is
shown below.

Facebook

Twitter

Google Plus

Customer
purchase intent

LinkedIn

YouTube
Instagram

24

Figure: Conceptual framework of Social media marketing and customer purchase intent
Source: Tuten and Solomon, (2013)
Through this chapter, the readers could have more in depth understanding about the key terms
such as social media marketing, purchase intention which were related with this research. The
useful secondary data collected from journals, books, articles and so forth were well
organized and presented for the purpose of the following study. Conceptual model was also
created to get proper and insights to the research key terms and their implications.

25

3 Chapter Three: Research methodology

The research methodology provides the way to systematically analyse the methods and
procedures that used in the field of the research. This consists of the thorough analysis of
procedures and methods that are in connection with the research. This particular chapter of
the research basically described the research methods used by the researcherto analyse the
research findings and proper justification has also been made.

3.1 Research design

According to Brace (2008), various empirical study and attempts suggested that research
investigation can be developed from the various activities and those activities will be
described properly on the study. The research design falls on two categories. It can
exploratory which suggests that various empirical and historical researches have done on the
research topic earlier. Besides, Research can also be analytical which involves critical
thinking and thorough evaluation of facts and information relative to the research being
conducted. Descriptive and predictive research design also prevalent to represent the
forecasting the future and upcoming implications(Wenzel, 2012).
The social media marketing has become popular concept in marketing and communication
and historically multiple studies were conducted to find the impact and relationship of SMM
on the customer purchase intent. For this reason, the researcher used the exploratory research
where the researcher reinforced the studies conducted earlier defined by Biddle and Emmett
(2013). The purpose of the research cant be served well by the alternative approaches. The
researcher here focused on basically from the new dimensions and ideas.

3.2 Research Philosophy

In this section, researcher basically show and reflect the vital assumptions of the author
where the researcher portrait the research strategy to develop a link between the knowledge
and data which are acquired through various process.
Epistemology

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, study of knowing the presuppositions and

foundations and its extent and validity. It gives us the idea of how do we know things, what

26

do we know, why we know, is what we know and what are limitation of the knowledge
(Emmett and Briddle, 2010).
Interpretivism

Interpretivism involves researcher to interpret elements of the study, thus interpretivism

integrate human interest into a study. Interpretivism uses the previous studies and information
of the individuals as the input of the research. In case of interpretivism, the outcomes and
comments of the individuals act as the basis of the research and method (Wenzel, 2012).

Phenomenology

Phenomenology refers to a persons proper perception of the meaning of an event,

knowledge, achievement, accomplishments, as opposed to the event as it exists externally to
(outside of) that person (Kirkwood and Zerbe, 2012).
Positivism

Positivism is considered as the most critical method of research philosophy which states that
researcher uses numerical, theoretical and factual data by bringing relevance to the current
situation or objective of the study. Various factual information is sought and collected from
various researches, secondary sources and measurements relating to the past data and
experiences that are considered to be more dependable (Lim and Mcaleer, 2008).

This research is developed on the data which is derived from various types of primary
sources and they are raw in nature for making the outcomes and data more reliable and
suitable for the study. The credibility of the research was also increased by the positivism
because it uses more relevant and accurate data without any manipulation. To ensure the
reliability and validity, the use of assumptions and hypothetical data were avoided which also
made this method perfect for the research to follow. In this research, more realistic and
practical data are used to reflect the realistic situation. No hypothetical data and assumptions
are used in this research. Thats why the researcher decided to use positivism for conducting
the research.

3.3 Research Approach

27

For conducting a particular research the researcher can use two approaches. The first one is
inductive approach and the other is deductive approach. The proper jurisdiction and
justification for using a particular approach are described properly with explanation in below

Figure: Research approach

Source: Nair, 2005
Deductive Research

A deductive approach is related with the development of hypothesis based on the existing
theory and then design a research strategy to test the hypothesis. Deductive theories are used
by the researchers because it provides the opportunity and area to make a proper use of the
current successful works to conduct research which make the research more viable and
validate because of the proper use of knowledge, data and theories and approaches (Rider et
al., 2013).

Figure: Deductive research approach

Source: www.socialresearchmethods.net, (2015)
Inductive Approach

There is a profound similarity between interpretivism philosophy and the inductive approach
and this inductive approach allows the researcher to analyse and interpret different real life
stories to get particular rational which facilitates the path of the research (Kahl et al., 2012).

28

This approach represents the method of creating critically evaluating the situation and current
facts.

Deductive approach seems to be much more important for the research purpose as the
researcher searches for the way to carry on more reliable study. Researcher has used
deductive research approach in this research because researcher needed to develop hypothesis
and assumptions based on the existing theories and knowledge because this research
technique emphasizes on using existing knowledge, assumptions and theories to conduct the
current research. Besides, that reason researcher also found it appropriate as it provides the
opportunity to use primary data for this research which is better suited with the deductive
approach. Thats why, this research was based on the deductive research approach.

3.4 Research Strategy

Research strategy basically involves case study analysis, observation, experiments, survey
etc.(kim, 2013). Interview strategy represents that the research will be conducted by
collecting information through taking interview. Case study states the process of conducting
research by collecting data and use logics from the case study analysis of different situations
(Joel, 2011) Observation refers to the act or process of observing something or someone
carefully to gain information and conducting the research on the basis of observation.
Experimental research represents that research must be conducted in the laboratory or under
close area. Survey research strategy represents a way of conducting research that includes
collection of data about what and how people think about particular matter by initializing
question based or statistical surveys.
Researcher used the survey method of research strategy because research collected primary
data for this research by using survey questionnaire for collecting responses from the selected
sample size. Besides, experimental strategy might not be appropriate for this research and
case study couldnt be considered as better choice than survey method. Observation method
didnt give appropriate and numerical data for the research. This research was based on
numerical data, so survey method was considered as best for conducting this research.
Besides, interview method could also be applied as researcher collected information and data
from different managers, employees and students. So the researcher has used both survey and
29

interview method of research strategy for this research because this strategy fits the
researcher and research purpose best.

3.5 Research Method

Research method describes the way researchers collect information from the respondents and
other sources. The research methods can vary based on the data collection method, instrument
types that are used in the research, data sources and data sampling methods. Most often,
researchers used the two categories of research method.
Quantitative Research Strategy

The quantitative research method represent that numerical data will be collected to conduct
the research which conveys the philosophy of deductive research to determine whether a
theory exists or not. The proper uses and measurements of numerical data are ensured by that
research strategy and hypothesis also made based on numeric data through which researcher
find the relationship between theory and real world. This strategy is said to be affected low by
the biasness and all the data are formed in the mathematical ways in this strategy that yields
standard results (Golafshani, 2003).
Qualitative research strategy

In case of qualitative research strategy, the researcher searches for information in the
qualitative form and tries make a theory based on various assumptions. In this strategy, there
is a huge chance of biasness because of the researchers own assumption and evaluation and
researcher uses generally interview method for collecting information from the respondents
(Krishnaswamy et al., 2006).

This qualitative approach can be considered by the researcher if there is not enough
numerical data and the research requires the personal insights and knowledge to make
relation with the theory and real example. The researcher must put more emphasis on the
quantitative approach as this methods provide more precise and accurate information and
result where different statistical and mathematical tools are used that represent that represent
true results (Saunders et al., 2009). Thats why the researcher has used the quantitative
research strategy in this research as the researcher also applied deductive research approach
and collected the research data in numerical form.
30

3.6 Data Collection Method

For making the research more validate and informative, research data provides the researcher
more opportunities than any other factors. Researcher uses primary data as well as secondary
data to conduct the study. By using appropriate data investigation method researcher usually
collects research data. Researcher chooses to use whether primary data or secondary data or
both of them by analysing the findings of data investigation. Thedata that are collected
specifically for a particular research and collected directly from first-hand experience are
often called primary data. Secondary data means data which have already collected for
another purpose and they exist already in some cases, studies and sources (McQuarrie, 1996).
The data sources are shown in following figures

Figure: Data collection method

Source: (Tsai, et al.,2012)

The researcher used both primary and secondary sources of data for preparing the research
and those would be sought by survey and interview technique. Researchers objective of
preparing this research paper would properly be served by merging primary and secondary
data collected through survey questionnaire. Secondary data were collected from different
books, online journals, and newspaper, article and research papers.

3.7 Data Sampling Method

31

Sampling is known as the procedure for marking a vital part of a population for making
assumption of the whole populations more easily and within limited time frame. Sampling
can be classified as probability and non-probability sampling.
Non- probability sampling is a technique of choosing the samples which will represent the
characteristics of the population in a subjective and more intuitional and judgmental way. In
case of non- probability sampling technique, the researchers gather samples in a way that
doesnt yield equal opportunities for all the items in the population of being selected (Brace,
2013). Besides, it is based on the subjective and factual information where probability
sampling ensures collection of numerical information.
Probabilty sampling can be identified as the technique of choosing the samples from the
population in a way that facilitates each unit in the population of having equal chance of
being selected Probability sampling can be made through three techniques as stratified
sampling, random sampling and systematic sampling. Among the probability random
sampling the simple random sampling is considered to be most easiest and mostly used
probability sampling technique. According to Sinkovics et al., (2005), sampling is the act or
process of choosing respondents to participate on the research process. Wenzel (2012)
classified sampling technique as random, cluster and stratified sampling.
In this research, the researcher has decided to use probability sampling method as researcher
found that this method served well the concept of quantitative research strategy wherehe
found that non- probability sampling technique served well the qualitative research
strategy.The researcher also used the random sampling method for this research because the
researcher found it this method as devoid of biasness and this sampling method served the
researchers objectives well by ensuring that each respondent of the population has equal
chance to be selected as sample. The researchers basically used to search for several
arguments and opinions that facilitates finding actual estimation. Considering all the
sampling techniques, the researcher has found the random sampling best suitable for
matching the research purpose and in this research a particular class of respondents were not
highlighted. This research included a wide variety of sample which represented strong
observations and alternative arguments. On the contrary, the researcher often found it pretty
rigid and difficult to use cluster sampling because of its inherent difficult nature and stratified
sampling might not fulfill the requirements and expectations of the researcher.

32

Researcher decided to collect sample size of 80 respondents based on some criteria lke
income, profession etc. which were assumed to properly reflect the all segments of the
population. The researcher has found it quite difficult for studying and analysing whole
population because ASDA has several limitation in analysing all the age group people,
income people thoroughly. Thats why the researcher determined several criteria like income
and professions as the basis for collecting 80 samples from various stores, professionals and
university students from several locations and another reason for choosing 80 sample sizes is
inadequacy of time and resources of the researcher.

3.8 Data Analysis tools and techniques

The researcher can use descriptive technique to investigate background and profile of the
respondents to estimate their perception regarding the associated the risk of trusting social
media as a reliable source of information and making purchase decision based on that
information. Some typical measurement such as mean, frequency distribution as well as
presentation of data through charts used to investigate data gathered through questionnaires.
Mean as well as frequency analysis used to measure the actual influence which is sought with
performance evaluation. Regression analysis is popularly used technique to measure the
result of independent parameters over reliant variable (ketchen and Bergh, 2004). Regression
analysis can be used to measure such situation to find out the relationship and effect amongst
the dependent variable and independent variables. The qualitative analysis of data was not
included as the researcher focused basically on the analysis of relationship and impact of
social media marketing on the customer purchase intent. Result and data analysis was
conducted by using SPSS that enables the researcher to perfectly interpret the statistical tools
for data analysis and result presentation. In this approach, the researcher also made sure the
proximity and intensity of variables.

3.9 Limitation of the study

The probability of partiality and biasness pops up, as the researcher might hide various
critical data in the survey possess and questions responses from the respondents also might
possess risk of biasness. A major limitation had been that the respondents personally made a
decision to participate in the interview process, despite the respondents are basically chosen
33

randomly. If the respondents made any distinction or become overly aware of the final results
of the study, it might harm the overall results of the research and representative nature of
population by the sample. One question always pops up whether the respondents are
providing true or false information. This research is focused on the speciality of several
groups. If it happens then the research result just become specific and limited to people who
participated within the study.

3.10 Ethical consideration

The researcher must put a caution as well as consideration in relation to the investigation and
interview process to ensure that the respondents were not possessed any harm either
physically or mentally throughout the interview process. The first thing researcher has to
ensure that the respondents can end up the interview voluntarily and they must be informed
about the purpose, character and period of the investigation. Voluntary involvement, informed
permission, confidentiality of respondents provided information basically formed the ethical
rights regarding the respondent of the research. The theory of knowledgeable consent says
that the respondent must be notified or informed about the purpose of the research and the
period it takes during the interview process as well as the associated risk popping up in the
research and the researcher must ask for permission from the respondents. This research must
consider the IRB acclaimed knowledgeable consent type of research. The actual participants
must be informed by the researcher about the purposes of the research, ask for permission
through written document, inform the time duration and associated risk active in the risk
before documenting begins.

34

4 Chapter Four: Result & Discussion

4.1 Result
This part includes the result analysis and discussion of the result that has been found by the
statistical analysis of the data collected from the sample. In the questionnaire, the customers
were asked several questions regarding the store layout and design of the Sainsbury stores
and if these factors influence the customer buying decision in the retail industry. The
researcher has found several findings that might be shocking to the business world along with
taking contradictory opinion to some other related results.
4.1.1 Demographic Profile of the Respondents

In the sample, 80 customers of Asda were selected to whom several question was asked about
the layout and design of the Sainsbury stores. The respondents were selected based on race,
gender, age and profession. However, both male and female customers got the preference to
get selected into the survey. There was a requirement to be more than 17 years old for every
customer. However, Most of the customers were from the British and Other Europe areas.

35

Table 1: Descriptive result of Demographic Profile of the Respondents

4.1.2 Cronbach's alpha

Cronbachs alpha refers the reliability and consistency of the independent variables in
providing actual and reliable information and output. The value of this analysis varies from
36

0.00 to 1.00 where value for than 0.5 refers high consistency and reliability. Almost all the
variables scores more than 0.50 which refers the variables that are used in the research are
reliable enough and respondents were consistent in their responses to the survey questions.
Table 2: Descriptive result of Cronbach's alpha

Variables

Independent Variables

Dependent variable

Cronbach's alpha

Facebook

0.83

Google Plus

0.74

Twitter

0.66

LinkedIn

0.72

Friendfeed

0.53

Orkut

0.49

Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

0.56

4.1.3 Facebook

Facebook is the most widely used social media sites throughout the world because of its
acceptance throughout the world. Facebook is really affecting anf created a new dimension in
the social media marketing by adding different features for advertising. Researcher has asked
three questions regarding the Facebook to the respondents in the survey. The 35% of the
overall respondents were strongly agreed with the research questions, 30% were agreed and
only 4% and 8% consecutively were somewhat agreed or disagreed with survey questions
which refer the respondents are very much positive about the positive impacts of Facebook
on Asdas customers. Besides, the average mean is more than 6 and average mode is also 6
which refer the positive influence of Facebook on Asdas customers buying intent.

37

Table 3:Descriptive result of Facebook

Facebook

Strongly Agree

35%

Agree

30%

Somewhat agree

19%

Neither agree nor disagree

3%

Somewhat disagree

4%

Disagree

8%

Strongly Disagree

1%

Total Number of Respondents

100%

Mean

6.19

Mode

38

Chart Title

Disagree; 8% Strongly Disagree ; 1%

Somewhat disagree
; 4% Agree ; 35%
Strongly
Neither agree nor disagree ; 3%
Somewhat agree ; 19%

Agree; 30%

Figure 1: Descriptive result of Facebook

4.1.4 Google Plus

Google Plus is now getting popularity in social media world but not as much popular as
Facebook. Asda also uses the Google Plus for its social media marketing. From 80
respondents, 25% were strongly agreed with the survey questions GP1,GP2 and GP3 where
11% were somewhat agreed. 19% were somewhat disagreed whether only 2% were strongly
disagreed. The average mean of the survey questions frequency is .74 which all refers the
positive opionion of the respodnets regarding the Google Plus. Besides, the mode value is 3.9
which refers the somewhat agreed of the respondents. Overall survey findings show that
respondents are somewhat agreed about its impacts.
Table 4: Descriptive result of Google Plus

Google Plus

Strongly Agree

25%

Agree

15%

39

Somewhat agree

11%

Neither agree nor disagree

2%

Somewhat disagree

19%

Disagree

6%

Strongly Disagree

2%

Total Number of Respondents

100%

Mean

5.74

Mode

3.9

Google Plus
30%
25%

25%

20%
15%

19%
15%
11%

10%
5%

6%
2%

2%

0%

Figure 2: Descriptive result of Google Plus

4.1.5 Twitter

40

Twitter is widely used social media site mainly in the western countries; it can enable the
users to give 130 words short tweet facilities with the photo and video sharing opportunity.
Asda uses twitter to conducts social media marketing. Researcher has used TW1, TW2 and
TW3 code to use three survey questions for getting the response from the respondents. 27%
of 80 respondents were strongly agreed, 10% were somewhat agreed, 9 % were neutral
whether 15% strongly disagreed, which refers respondents are positive towards to the
effectiveness of the twitter. The average mean was 5.32 which refers the somewhat agree of
the respondents whether the average mode is low which also justify the means findings.
Table 5: Descriptive result of Twitter

Twitter

Strongly Agree

27%

Agree

12%

Somewhat agree

10%

Neither agree nor disagree

9%

Somewhat disagree

12%

Disagree

15%

Strongly Disagree

15%

Total Number of Respondents

100%

Mean

5.32

Mode

3.9

41

Twitter
Strongly Disagree

15%

Disagree

15%

Somewhat disagree

12%

Neither agree nor disagree

9%

Somewhat agree

10%

Agree

12%

Strongly Agree
0%

27%
5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Figure 3: Descriptive result of Twitter

4.1.6 LinkedIn

LinkedIn is now become the biggest professional sites in the world with huge coverage of
corporate personnel. Asda uses LinkedIn for attracting potential employees and find the
corporate buyers. Respondents showed that average 15% were strongly agreed the three
survey questions, 12% were agreed with survey questions but 16% were somewhat disagreed
and 9% were strongly disagreed. The average mean is 5.14 and mode is 4.5 which all refer
the respondents positive opinions regarding the impact of LinkedIn in customer purchase
intent. So, it can be concluded that respondents are somewhat agreed with the survey
questions.
Table 6: Descriptive result of LinkedIn

LinkedIn

Strongly Agree

15

Agree

12

Somewhat agree

11

Neutral

7
42

Somewhat disagree

16

Disagree

10

Strongly Disagree

Total Number of Respondents

80

Mean

5.11

Mode

4.5

Linke dIn

9
10

15
12

16

Strongly Agree
Neutral
Strongly Disagree

7 11

Agree
Somewhat disagree

Somewhat agree
Disagree

Figure 4: Descriptive result of LinkedIn

4.1.7 YouTube

YouTube is another great medium of social networking sites which huge number of video. It
has become a biggest platform to exhibit the products and its services through video clips.
Asda uses the YouTube as a part of social media marketing. Of all the 80 respondents, 16% of
the respondents were strongly agreed with the researchers three survey questions. 20% were
somewhat agreed, 19% were neutral whether 9% were disagreed and 8% were strongly

43

disagreed. The mean and mode is consecutively 5.56 and 4.9 which all refer the respondents
showed positive impacts about the YouTube on customer purchase intent.
Table 7: Descriptive result of Friend-Feed

Youtube

Strongly Agree

16%

Agree

18%

Somewhat agree

20%

Neither agree nor disagree

19%

Somewhat disagree

10%

Disagree

9%

Strongly Disagree

8%

Total Number of Respondents

100%

Mean

5.56

Mode

4.9

44

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Somewhat disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Somewhat agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Figure 5: Descriptive result of YouTube

4.1.8 Instagram

Instagram is the most popular medium of the photo sharing social media site. Respondents
showed that average 8% were strongly agreed the three survey questions, 8% were agreed
with survey questions but 16% were somewhat disagreed and 16% were strongly disagreed.
The average mean is 4.23 and mode is 3.21 which all refer the respondents positive opinions
regarding the impact of Instagram on customer purchase intent. So, it can be concluded that
respondents are somewhat agreed with the survey questions.

Table 8: Descriptive result of Instagram

Instagram

Strongly Agree

8%

Agree

8%

Somewhat agree

11%

Neutral

18%
45

Somewhat disagree

16%

Disagree

23%

Strongly Disagree

16%

Total Number of Respondents

100%

Mean

4.23

Mode

3.21

Instagram

Strongly Agree

Agree

Somewhat agree

Neutral

Somewhat disagree

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Figure 6: Descriptive result of Instagram

4.1.9 Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

Customer purchase intent has become the biggest focused issue in the whole business world.
Customer are now getting more preferences and organisations are trying to influences the
customer purchase intent. Researcher has designed 3 questions for the survey to identify the
customer purchase intent and researcher has found that 55% were strongly agreed, 25% were
agreed, 7 were neutral whether 3% were disagreed and 2 were strongly disagreed. It refers
respondents were very positive about the customer purchase intent. The average mean and
46

mode are consecutively 6.44 and 6 which also refers respondents showed positive opinion
about customer purchase intent.

Table 9: Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

Strongly Agree

55%

Agree

25%

Somewhat agree

7%

Neither agree nor disagree

2%

Somewhat disagree

6%

Disagree

3%

Strongly Disagree

2%

Total Number of Respondents

Mean

6.44

Mode

47

Customer P urchase Intent (CP I)

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Somewhat disagree
Neither agree nor disagree
Somewhat agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Figure 7: Descriptive result of Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

4.1.10

Correlation Analysis

The researcher applied statistical analytical tools to calculate the correlation of the variables.
The researcher has found the relation between the customer purchase intent and social media
marketing of Asda stores by the following correlation analysis,

Table 10: Correlation Matrix

Correlations Matrix

Facebook

Google

Twitter

LinkedIn

FriendFeed

Orkut

Plus

Facebook

1.00

Google Plus

0.94

1.00

Twitter

0.27

0.39

1.00

LinkedIn

0.57

0.00

0.19

1.00

48

FriendFeed

0.61

0.90

0.82

0.67

1.00

Orkut

0.93

0.99

0.36

0.20

0.76

1.00

CPI

0.96

0.85

0.55

0.79

0.85

0.85

This research findings showed that all the variables are highly correlated with each other
because almost all the values are more than 0.5 which refers the positive relationship exist
between the variables.

4.1.11

Regression Analysis

Table 11: Model Summary of Customer purchase intent

Model Summary

Model

R Square

Adjusted R Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

0.214

0.858

0.846

0.737

a. Predictors: (Constant), Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn

The researcher has found that there is a positive relation of 84.6% between the determinants.
So the R square is calculated 84.6%. This means there is 45% impact of the social media
marketing on the customer purchase intent. This explains that 1% change in the social media
marketing of the Asda stores changes the customer buying intent by 0.45%.

Table 12: Coefficient of Regression

Model

Unstandardized

Standardized

Coefficients

Coefficients

Sig.

49

Std.
Error

(Constant)

7.121

1.220

5.835

0.000

Facebook

0.078

0.137

0.644

0.570

0.570

Twitter

-0.141

0.115

0.543

-1.229

0.222

Google Plus

-0.162

0.101

0.237

-1.609

0.111

Instagram

-0.188

0.105

0.442

-1.802

0.075

LinkedIn

0.233

0.122

0.478

0.689

0.605

YouTube

0.058

0.185

0.309

0.130

0.235

From the following table, the effects of the independent variables on customer purchase
intent can be measured and referred. The independent variable attention towards detail has
the value of beta 0.644 on Employee Motivation, Twitter has 0.543, Google Plus has 0.237,
Instagram has 0.03, LinkedIn has 0.36 and YouTube has 0.15. it can be said that independent
variables has positive effects on the dependent variable.

4.1.12
Which one is the most attractive and influencing social
media?

For finding the most perfect social media marketing tools, researcher has added a question on
the survey for getting response from the respondents. From 80 respondents, 47% referred that
Facebook is the most attraction and influential social media site. Besides, twitter has got
23%, YouTube has got 20% and Instagram has got 10% responses. So, it can be concluded
that Facebook is the most effective and influential social media marketing tools.

50

Which one is the most attractive and influencing social media?

LinkedIn; 10
Google Plus; 20

Facebook; 47

Twitter; 23

Figure 8: Descriptive result of Most Attractive social Media

4.1.13
Through which social media you are getting influenced
mostly for purchasing the products of ASDA?

Influencing customer purchase, Facebook has scored 55% from the respondents overall
response. On the other hand, Google Plus scored 12%, Twitter has got 10 responses and
YouTube has got 23% responses. So, it can be concluded that Facebook influences the
customers to purchase products from Asda most.

Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for purchasing the products of ASDA?

LinkedIn; 23%

Google Plus; 12%

Facebook; 55%

Twitter; 10%
Facebook Twitter Google Plus LinkedIn

Figure 9: Descriptive result of Which Social Media Customers are influenced to purchase the
products

51

4.1.14
Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than
other social media?

Social media marketings most important part is advertising policy because advertisement is
one of the most important ways to influence customer purchase intent. Respondents
responded that Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social media
which is supported by 78% respondents whether 22% gave negative responses regarding this
question.

Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social media?

No; 22%

Yes ; 78%
Yes

No

Figure 10: Descriptive result of Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other
social media

4.1.15
Twitter has more customized features for its advertising
policies than Facebook?

For this question, 39% respondents were agreed, 7% were strongly agreed, 6% were neutral
and 12% were disagreed. So, it can be said that Twitter has more customized features for its
advertising policies than Facebook and it is supported by the majority respondents.

52

Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than Facebook?
Strongly Disagree

7%

Disagree

39%

Somewhat Disagree

23%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 4%

Somewhat Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
0%

6%
9%
12%
5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Figure 11: Descriptive result of Twitter has more customized features for its advertising
policies than Facebook

4.2 Discussion
Facebook has become the best media for social media become it has got the largest account
holder in the world. According to the customer feedback, the Facebook of the Asda is welldecorated with all the information which can meet the customers demands and queries,
besides it also helps them to communicate direct with the company to learn many things
directly. Pietrobruno (2013)expressed similar opinion about the Facebook because opens the
path to communicate with them directly, demonstrate them different pictures and videos
which can help them attract the customers and their purchase simultaneously. The survey
findings showed that Facebook is very effective as a tool of social media marketing which
can actively helping Asda to influence the customer purchase intent in favour of them by
providing different facilities and scopes towards the customers. From the data analysis it is
clear that Asda has designed it focusing on the customers and customers are very positive
towards the Facebook facilities which are reflected in the frequency of the response of
respondents regarding the Facebook where maximum respondents responded positively and
agreed with its effects. Besides, the average mean of the responses of the respondents
regarding the three survey questions revealed that overall basis respondents agreed with the
positive impacts of the social media on customer purchase intent. The mode, correlation and
53

regression analysis report also shows the similar findings regarding Facebooks impacts.
Howard et al. (2014) concluded that Facebook is giving the scope for the business
organisation a chance to advertise their company, making a page on it which can help to build
a strong presence in the social media to increase the customer value as well as brand image,
all of which ultimately helpful in gaining customer perception for influencing the customer
purchase intent. Walker (2014) have concludedFacebook is the best medium of the social
media marketing because of its user friendliness and the scopes to use different tools and apps
which make it unique and lucrative for the business organisation for increasing their business
activities to attract customer purchase.

Google plus is not that much popular as social media sites but it contains a large number of
subscribers which can help it as a potential social media sites. Besides, it is now growing
popularity among different part of the world and also among the business community. It is
found that the presence of Asda on Google plus is very appreciable because it puts efforts on
this to attract different customers which can help it to be more effective in the business arena.
The survey findings also support that Google Plus is a very effective tool to conduct the
marketing for influencing the customer purchase intent. Respondents showed positive motion
about the Google plus through their responses or feedback for the three survey questions
which refers concur of them about the positive relationship and positive impact. Besides, the
mean and mode of the frequency of the respondents responses is supporting the above
mentioned statement. Regression, cronbachs alpha and correlation analysis in the data
analysis part reflected that Google plus have positive relationship with other variables and
have positive impacts on the dependent variable as well. According to Veeck and Hoger
(2014), though Google plus has not got so much popularity but it has got potential the market
because of its strong backup and also effectively gaining popularity in the business world as
part of social media marketing because Google has taken many steps to make it more friendly
and attractive by adding many facilities. Walker (2014) have concluded that Google plus is
very effective tool because it gives a proper mixture of different facilities that are not present
in some popular social media sites which makes it very lucrative for the customers and
ultimately lure the business companies to present there for reaching vast number of people or
potential customers there.

54

Twitter is one of the popular social media sites in the world and thats why, Asda has targeted
this site as tool of social media marketing for increasing traffic on its sites and websites. It is
found that Asda is using twitter to increase the trafficking by sharing different information
and creating direct communication with the customers.Natarajan et al. (2014)have explained
that twitter is very effective in attain customer attention because it describes everything in
short notes, which is convenient for the users and easy to understand, besides it helps the
business organisation to share different things to generate trafficking on its websites and
create a brand image in the social media. Asda uses the Twitter for sharing different pictures
and videos which are helping the customers and also creating awareness about different
things, beside company can get user generated content from twitter with appropriate
feedback. Researcher has found in his survey that, maximum number of respondents gave
positive feedback about the survey questions, besides the average mean and mode is also
supporting the idea of positive impacts of twitter on customer purchase intent. The
regression, correlation analysis are also supporting the same conclusion about positive
relationship other variables and high impact on customer purchase intent. Howard et al.
(2014) concluded that twitter is getting priority in social media marketing because it is
getting more and more subscribers day by day and organisations are trying to grab this vast
potential customers by using the twitters scope of talking, communication, exchanging
information, generating feedbacks, creating buzz by showing different picture and videos to
the followers.

According to Pietrobruno (2013), YouTube is the largest video sharing and blogging site in
the whole world with vast amount and collection of videos. Respondents believes that
YouTube has become a big part of social media marketing which opens the platform to share
different videos of the business organisation by demonstrating different positive and benefits
to attract the new customers and potential one. The researcher found that the content of the
Asda on YouTube is satisfactory to attract the customers because there are many attractive
and videos related to review of different goods are given which help the customers to choose
the best one and choose Asda as their suitable store to shopping. The survey findings also
support that YouTube is a very effective tool to conduct the marketing for influencing the
customer purchase intent. Respondents showed positive motion about YouTube through their
responses or feedback for the three survey questions which refers concur of them about the
positive relationship and positive impact. Besides, the mean and mode of the frequency of the
55

respondents responses is supporting the above mentioned statement. Regression, cronbachs

alpha and correlation analysis in the data analysis part reflected that YouTube have positive
relationship with other variables and have positive impacts on the dependent variable as well.
Saluja and Singh (2014)found that YouTube opens a path for the business organisation to
show different benefits and uses of the products to the customers and also can post customer
review about the products which all are creating a scope for the business to influence the
customers buying pattern and intent.

LinkedIn is the world biggest professional networking sites where different kinds of
professionals are gathered together for creating a virtual community. According
toDamnjanovic et al. (2012), LinkedIn opens the path of digital marketing where it can reach
business buyers and different professionals by using rich visual content and by offering Value
in Discussion Groups. The researcher found that from the above data analysis it is clear that
the LinkedIn of Sainsbury makes it more aristocratic and attractive where the company
maintains a special system to be filly attentive towards customer purchase intent. The
respondents average response was around 5 that mean they are slightly satisfied and attracted
with the LinkedIn of the Asda and to some extent they are neutral. The regression of the
result also shows that there is a positive effect of the LinkedIn on the customer purchase
intent. So, it clear that LinkedIn is effective social media marketing to influence the customer
purchase intent. On the other hand, Natarajan et al. (2014) disagreed that it is not effective in
influencing customers rather it is appropriate in attracting potential and qualified employees
as it is a sites of professionals around the world.

Customer purchase intent is the dependent variable here and researcher has focused
excessively on this variables to find effectiveness of the social media marketing on its. Kim
and Ko (2010) expressed that Customer purchase intent refers the customer purchase
behaviour which he or she usually shows during purchasing a product and by which he or she
always is always influenced to choose a particular product. The customer purchase intent of
the Asda is satisfactory which is proved by the recent growth and increase of market share,
besides the social media marketing is really important for it in this era of information
technology. Asda is trying hard to influence its customers by the social media sites which are
proved by the use of social media sites in its websites with special consideration.
56

Researcher found through its survey questions that respondents are highly positive towards
the survey questions regarding the impact of social media on customer purchase intent.
Almost 80% of the respondents were agreed about the survey questions about the customer
purchase intent. Regression analysis showed all the independent variables are effective and
have some impacts on the customer purchase intent. Besides, correlation analysis shows
positive impacts on customer purchase intent. The average mean and mode value also support
the statement.
katona (2013)concluded that customer purchase behaviour is now depended on many factors
where social media marketing is another big element which are now influencing customers at
high rate and the current technological surge has made the importance of social media
marketing more acute for influencing the customer purchase intent.

According to the survey, Facebook is the most popular social media site of the Asda because
it gives profound opportunity to communicate and involve customers. Customers are getting
influenced mostly by the Facebook for purchasing the products of ASDA which also concur
with the recent survey. Besides, customers are agreed that Facebook advertising policy is
more user friendly than other social media sites in the world. But many people agreed that
Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies than Facebook.

57

5 Chapter Five: Conclusion and recommendation

5.1 Conclusion
Asda is using social media as great tool of marketing by which it is now generating or
attaining potential benfits which is helping towards its sustainability and profitability. Social
media marketing refers the process of using social media, such as- Facebook, Twitter,
Myspace, Skype, Instragram, LinkedIn, etc in marketingandthus social media marketing
enables the company more competitive by generating opinions, reviews and comments of the
different customers which reflects the current market conditions and scenarios that will help
to design more customer oriented strategy for getting more customer insight and customer
preferences.

Exploring the different aspects and importance of Social media marketing for a retailing
company on the basis of Asda is the first objective of this research. Researcher has
investigated how social media marketing is helping Asda in influencing customer purchase
intent by using different theories, tactics and statistical tools. Social media marketing has got
some identifiable advantages over traditional marketing communications. Traditional
marketing involves one way communication which often called push based marketing. That
means people sometimes do not expect information but firms push the information regarding
their products to the people. This doesnt include an interactive mode of communication
where social media marketing involves not only two ways or interactive mode of
communication but also facilitates dialogue with people to have a better understanding about
their needs. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn are the key elements of
Asdas social media marketing. Researcher has clearly identified different aspects and
importance of social media effectively.

Analysing customer purchase intent and different factors related with this of Asda is a
research objective and researcher put different efforts to accomplish this objectives.
Researcher found that customers purchase intention can be influenced by several factors and
58

firms must focus on this and design effective strategies to attract them and get purchase in
favour of them. Customers typically show various purchased behaviour while purchasing the
products which are based on involvement level and quality of the products and organisation
must put special consideration on these different behaviour to design different strategies
which will be effective towards different types of customers for getting maximum purchases
from them and making them loyal to the company.

Social media marketing and customer purchase intent are related to each other and to show
the relationship between is an objective of the research. Researcher found that Social media is
flourishing as a critical tool for influencing customers and persuading their purchase intention
to the firms products and services which indicate that both social media and customers
purchase intent are correlated. Now people are influenced more by external environmental
factors and social media has performed a critical role as a external source of information to
the people and influencing their attitudes. Now, consumers are more cling to several kinds of
social media to conduct research on information to assist their decision making (Suki, 2011).
In particular, social networking sites had significant impact on purchase decision of internet
users visiting those sites (Saluja and Singh, 2014). Besides, the correlation analysis and
regression analysis also justified the statement that these two topics are related to each other.

From the above discussion and whole research analysis, it is clear that Social media
marketing is crucial to influence customer purchase intent of Asda which is proved by the
research findings and also there is a strong relationship between Social media marketing and
customer purchase intent of Asda which is also proved by the research findings. So, it can be
said that both of the research hypotheses are justified as truth and both are accepted by the
researcher.

59

5.2 Recommendations:
For better outcomes, Asda needs to improve its current social media marketing strategy for
be more effective in gaining customer purchase by influencing their intent. Social media
marketing mainly aims to increase the trafficking in the social media sites and its websites to
present or demonstrate different offers, products, schemes, reviews, information and other
things for influencing customer perception and getting more response. In following some
recommendations are made which will accomplish the last of objective of this research:

Asda needs to be more active in social media sites by increasing its present in more
networking sites because many sites, like- my space, orkut, friends feed, are still
untapped by it which is creating some communication gap with the subscribers of
these social media sites. Besides, it can use Skype to conduct direct communication
with them to make them understand about different topics for influencing customers
perceptions. Research findings revealed that customers are very eager for the social
media marketing and it will be more effective if asda can cover other potential social
networking sites to cover more potential customers. More coverage on the social
media sites will enable it to gain more potential customers which will increase the

impact of social media marketing more.

Researcher found that mismanagement or inappropriate handling of the social media
marketing can cause potential problem. Besides, for effective conduction of SCM, it
is needed to give responsibility to separate fully employed employees for this
purpose. Asda can create a separate division or department for the social media
marketing for making its more focused and appropriate with the current situation
because many competitors are now focusing more on this and gaining competitive
advantages. So, Asda can recruit a social media marketing manager for gaining more
specialization on this sector. Besides, prompt and instance service or feedback must
be insured to capture customers attention which will eventually make it a customer

oriented company and will help to influence customer perception.

Researcher also found that customers are very eager to create communication among
them to take information and reviews. So, Asda can create a separate social media
sites for its customers which will mainly focus on its loyal and most preferred

60

customers to be in a group. Asda can name it as Asda family where the customers
of the Asda can communicate with each other and can give feedback to the Asda
regarding different issues, which will create new dimension towards its business and

also attract the customers.

Asda needs to give more emphasis on the quality of the social media sites content
because if it is not updated or up-to-mark certainly will demoralize customers and will
create negative image which eventually will negatively influence customers
purchases. Besides, it must regularly update its info and page content with new
changes for making its more effective and rich in nature. On the other, it must keep
eyes on handling the social media sites because any fault and fake promise; news can
damage the company image severely. It is found in the research that the more
presence in social networking sites is good but maintaining quality is the main way to

create enthusiasm and keep interest of the customers.

The complaints and nay kind of negative comments in the social media sites must be
handled properly for proper brand of the organisation because if customers see any
bad comment automatically he or she will perceive a negative image about the
company. So, Asda needs to be careful about these issues for better management of
brand image in digital marketing. Besides, prompt and instance measure must be
taken to handle the complaints of the customers. Research revealsCustomer handling
and complaints management good huge priority, so better idea and way is needed to

formulate for better management of brand image in digital marketing.

Separate strategy, game plan and goals must be designed for each social media entity
for making the strategy for customized and appropriate with the surrounding situation
because different social media may demands different situation, so for being more
specific and appropriate it must for the organisation to design separate strategy for

separate site.
Customer service strategy and action plan must be designed to define the code of
conduct for each of the social media sites. Besides, Asda must go above and beyond
to satisfy the customers. Proper evaluation of performance must be done for better
understanding of the situation. Asda needs to focus on giving customers a chance to
express their feeling which will help to generate new ideas from there.

61

5.3 Limitation and future research scope:

This research is an academic research and this is not for any business purpose, so the
researcher has faced the shortage of resources and some knowledge lacking. This research
covered different aspects of the social media marketing on customer purchase intent. In
future, researcher can conduct research based on how each of the social media sites is eligible
and important to influence the customers purchase intent. Besides, more research can be
conducted on how the social media marketing should be designed and what should be content
of the social media marketing. The research needs to be conduct regarding the current topic in
future for understanding what the current scenario is. In future researcher can conduct
research how can social media marketing can target the customers and can segment the
market to design its contents and influence the customer purchase intent.

62

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6 Appendices

Appendix A

Survey Form
Serial
Number:
An Investigation of the impact of Social media marketing on customer
purchase intent in retail industry of UK: A case study of Asda
Dear participant,
I am conducting a survey for completing the research paper related to the social
media advertisement for finding the impact of it on the consumer buying
behaviour especially focusing the study on ASDA, UK. For that purposes the
below mentioned information is needed to fill up. I will use that information for
the academic purposes only.
Thank You for your help.

PARTICIPANT SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Personal Information
15-21

22-29

Age

30-39

40 and above

High School

Education Level

Less than high

school
Diploma
MCS

PHd.

Less than 1000

1001-2000

2001-3000

3001-5000

Monthly

BCs.

67

Income

5001-7000

More than 7000

Nationality

British (UK)

Asian

African

Other European

Male

Female

Gender

Survey Questions Representatives

Strongly
Disagree

Disagr
ee

Somew
hat
Disagre
e

Neutr
al

Somew
hat
Agree

Agree

Strongly
agree

Survey Questionnaire
Code

Questions

Stro
ngly
Disa
gree

Disa
gree

Som
ewh
at
Disa
gree

Neutr
al

Som
ewh
at
Agre
e

Ag
ree

Stro
ngly
agre
e

Section One: Facebook

F1

Facebook is an
important tool of
social media
marketing

F2

Facebook content
of Asda is rich and
appropriate for the
current situation

F3

Facebook of
Asdahas
influenced my
purchase intent

68

positively

GPSection Two: Google Plus

GP1

Google Plus of
Asda is effective to
influence
customers

GP2

I think the content

of Google plus is
appropriate to
meet customers
query

GP3

Google plus of
Asda is efficient
enough to
influence customer
purchase intent.

Section Three: Twitter

TW1

Twitter is becoming
a great tool of
social media
marketing now-adays

TW2

I personally visited
the Twitter of Asda
and it is
satisfactory

TW3

Twitter is helping
Asda to influencing
customers
positively

Section Four: LinkedIn

LI1

LinkedIn has linked

Asda with different
potential
customers

LI2

It effective tool of
social media
marketing

LI3

It effective to
influence customer
69

purchase
behaviour
Section Five: YouTube
YT1

YouTube is
influecng the
customers through
it content

YT2

I believe YouTube
can help Asda to
be more
competitive in
social media
marketing

YT3

It really efficient
tool to influence
customer purchase
Section Six: Instagram

IT1

Instagram content
of Asda is
satisfactory and
appropriate to
meet customers
demands and
query

IT2

Asda is using it to
influence customer
purchase
behaviour

IT3

Asda has regularly

update its content
to make it more
dynamic
Section Seven: Customer Purchase Intent (CPI)

CPI1

Customer
purchase intent of
Asdas customer
are positive
enough

CPI2

Social media
marketing is really
influencing
70

customer purchase
intent
CPI3

Customer
purchase intent
can be increase if
the customers
demand of
knowledge and
information is
fulfilled fully which
can be done by the
social media
marketing.

Other Questions
1. Which one is the most attractive and influencing social media?
a) Facebook
b) Twitter
c) Google Plus
d) LinkedIn
2. Through which social media you are getting influenced mostly for
purchasing the products of ASDA?
a) Facebook
b) Google Plus
c) Twitter
d) LinkedIn
3. Facebooks advertisement policy is less disturbing than other social
media?
a) Yes
b) No
4. Twitter has more customized features for its advertising policies
than Facebook?
a) Strongly Agree
b) Agree
c) Somewhat Agree
d) Neither Agree nor Disagree
e) Somewhat Disagree
f) Disagree
g) Strongly Disagree

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72

Appendix B
CONSENT FORM
Please give tick mark to the () relevant boxes
1. I confirm, the information sheet is clear to me
2. I am aware of my participation
3. I provide permission to participate
4. I give my consent to remain confidential members at the focus group
5. I am glad to be approached

Signature:
Date:

73