A Mini Project Report on the topic titled

“IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR”

Submitted to

Submitted To:

Dr. T P M Pakkala

JKSHIM, Nitte.

Submitted By:

Group 1 A

Delwin Joel Goveas

Jesslyn Miranda

Abdul Thouheed

Athmik Rai

Ashik Rai

Ankitha Rai B

Date of submission:

31st May, 2018

JUSTICE K.S HEGDE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, NITTE

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We are very much beholden to Justice K.S Hegde Institute of Management, Nitte
for giving this wonderful opportunity to undertake the research study as a part of the
Research and Quantitative Methods II subject.

A particular word of thanks is due to Dr.PAKKALA, Professor at JKSHIM, Nitte

and other faculty members for their useful tips and encouragement.

Last but not the least we thank our parents, our friends for providing us with
valuable information and required for this Mini project and most of all for their support
and cooperation.

TEAM 1 A
 DECLARATION

We hereby declare that we have submitted our research mini project to Prof.Pakkala professor,
Justice K.S. Hegde Institute of Management as a part of internal assessment of Research and
Quantitative Methods II Subject, Assignment here submitted is original, all the information
collected are from primary and secondary sources. We are aware that each student is responsible
and liable for disciplinary actions.
 Table of Contents
Sl No Particulars
Acknowledgement
Declaration
Table of Contents
1 Abstract
2 Introduction
3 Research Question
4 Literature review
5 Hypotheses
6 Research methodologies
7 Data Analysis Method
8 Results
9 Discussion
10 Conclusion
11 Improvement of further research
12 References
13 Appendices
1.ABSTRACT

The project on “IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR” gives

the picture or idea about the impact of social media on consumer’s decision making process.
In the beginning it gives brief introduction to entire project work by providing
information about the objectives, needs for the study, research methodology, limitations of
the study then it provides the report on review of literature i.e. information provided by
various authors that are published in their books, various articles published in newspaper and
journals & various information collected from the source of internet. Later it gives the data
analysis and interpretation and at last it deals with the conclusion which is very important
after the analysis is made.

2.INTRODUCTION:

Over the decades, customers’ way of shopping has changed significantly. In fact we can say
that it has improved. Earlier customers visited shopping malls or retail stores for shopping,
yet few people follow this method for shopping. However with the help of information and
technologies, customers are let to shop via internet. Customers shop using various websites or
social media, these can be called as online shopping, internet shopping, online buying
Behavior these are the process of buying and purchasing products or services via internet.
Social media is also called as social networking sites, various social media’s are Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram these not only help to build connections among people but also serve as a
place where they can buy products and services. Social media share various information and
it is the way of communication as well. Today social media is play a vital role in everyone’s
life. Social media supports its customers in several sectors, like business, education,
marketing and advertisement. In the view of business, business and people can interact
directly over social media with each other with regard to buying and selling of food and
services. The use of technology has increased drastically, particularly social media. By
interacting more with the customers through social media it will increase potential customers
and also the probability of turning potential customers into regular shoppers. A study has
shown that social media enable 25% of its customers to post about the products and services
by updating positive and negative comments on the products they purchased, which will in
turn increase their customers. It is found that 60% of their customers prefer to share
information about products, 49% make decision to buy the products online, 70% of
customers just visit to get useful information, and only 7% of the customers contribute to
actual transactions of purchasing. This research concentrates on purchasing perspective of
customers who buy products using social media. The study aims to examine why customers
purchase using social media, to know which category of customers are influenced more, to
know which type of customers use social media and to know which product is most suitable
 for social media. This research will explain on how an individual is selecting, attending,
processing the information online before purchase. Moreover, the empirical part of the
research strives to provide insights to any companies that are trying to shift to or are currently
participating in the new marketing trend.

Objectives

• To study the impact of social media.

• To study how consumers behavior is effected by social media

• To explain why, when, and how social media has impacted on consumer decision
making process.

• It can help to identity what are the opportunities and pitfalls companies are facing
with this impact on consumers decision and how the election results are affected by social
media campaigns.

• To analyze how better the Consumers and businesses around the globe are connected
than ever before with the presence of Internet and social media.

Need

The main purpose of this study is to know the impact of social media on consumer’s
behavior. Another purpose of this study is because a social media is a fast growing and has
gained a lot of importance. It is useful in developing ways for the more efficient utilization of
resources of marketing and convincing people. It also helps in solving management problems
in more effective manner. Today consumers give more importance on environment friendly
products. They are concerned about health, hygiene and fitness. They prefer natural products.
Hence detailed study on upcoming groups of consumers is essential for any firm.

3. RESEARCH QUESTION

How the social media has impacted consumer behavior?

 To know which gender is most impacted by the social media?

 To know which social media is more likely used by the customers?
 To know the behavior of the customers after referring brands social media
pages?
 To know the age group of the customers who use social media the most?
 To know for what purpose the social media is used?
 To find out how the people trust product and services information on social
media pages ?
4. LITREATURE REVIEW:

A literature review is a text of a scholarly paper, which includes the current knowledge
including substantive findings, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a
particular topic.
Today consumer plays a vital role in any type of business. Customer is treated as king and
every effort is made to satisfy his wants and needs. Today due to the digital era the social
media and gadgets are playing a tremendous role in business and even there are businesses
that are carried on in social media itself.

Dr. Sourbhi Chaturvedi, Rahul Barbar- vol: 2(2), June 2014-“Impact of social media on
consumer behavior” speaks about how often are the social networking websites accessed and
even how the social sites have impacted on consumers mind and to what use they are put by
the users on the basis of demographic variables.

Abimbola Olanrewaju Oni - University of Minho, Braga, Portugal and Iyanuoluwa Oni
Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria- “Impact of social media on consumer behavior” published
in International journal of Innovative Research and Advanced Studies (IJIRAS) Vol-5 (1),
January 2018- This study shows that how the social media channels have effected consumers
behavior and how marketers use it as network channel to influence the customer. And how
through social media a marketer interacts and influences the consumer by using social media
tools.

M. Nick Hajli Birkbeck, University of London –“A study on impact of social media on
consumers” published in International Journal of Marketing research VOL56, ISSUE 3- this
study shows that how a social media facilitates social interaction with the consumers and how
it influences the buying behavior of the consumer and how it creates a trust worthy
relationship in the trade and even how the social media sites have influenced the change in
the consumer behavior

Jesslyn Miranda in her project article “A Study on impact of social media on consumer
behavior “(unpublished) submitted to St.Aloysious College in 2017 speaks about how the
consumer behavior is effected by usage of social media and how the buying pattern of
customer is influenced by social media advertisements.

5. HYPOTHESIS:

An increased trend in online shopping and smartphones has resulted in increased power of
social media on our finger tips creating larger impact on consumer behavior.-

Impacted in satisfying needs of “always connected customers” at every touch point and in
real time, anticipating their needs and reporting at each step.

H01 there is no specific reason of consumer’s social media usage.

H11 there is a specific reason of consumer social media usage.

H02 there is no significant difference in buying behavior of customer with respect to social
media

H12 there is a significant difference in buying behavior of customer with respect to social
media.

H03 there is no significant impact of social media on young working women’s buying
behavior.

H13 there is a significant impact of social media on young working women’s buying behavior.

H04 there is no significant difference in effectiveness of difference social media tools on

consumer behavior

H14 there is a significant difference in effectiveness of difference social media tools on

consumer behavior.

H05 there is no association between effect of social media and education of respondent,
income of respondent, and occupation of respondent.

H15 there is a association between effect of social media and education of respondent, income
of respondent, and occupation of respondent

6.RESEARCH METHOLODOLOGIES

METHODOLOGY

Primary data: Information will be collected by conducting survey by circulating online

questionnaire to people. These people will be of different age groups, different occupation,
different income levels, and different status (married or not).

Secondary data: Internet, public opinion, newspapers, magazines and journals.

Variables of the study

Dependent variable: Buying behaviour with respect to social media

Independent variable: Online purchasing behaviour, consumer buying behaviour, complex

buying behaviour, habitual buying behaviour, varieties buying behaviour.
Dependent variable Independent variable
Buying behaviour with respect to social media Online purchase behaviour
Consumer buying behaviour
Complex buying behaviour
Habitual buying behaviour
Varieties buying behaviour

Online purchase behaviour: this variable primarily indicates the online behaviour of the
consumer from the purchase point of view

Consumer buying behaviour: This variable focuses primarily indicates the online behaviour
of the consumer from the reasons which lead to the purchase through social media point of
view.

Complex buying behaviour: when the consumer highly involved in the buying then it is
called complex buying behaviour.

Habitual buying behaviour: in case of habitual buying behaviour there is low involvement of
the consumer. They buy the product belonging to a particular brand which they regularly
prefer.

Variety buying behaviour: it takes place when the consumer has different product choices
that serve the same purpose.

Sample design

Simple random method:

We are going to conduct a survey on our topic, Impact of social media on consumer
behaviour. We are going for primary sources for getting information. We are not circulating
it only to one group of people or one area people or any particular cluster. Anyone can access
to our questionnaire which we are going to circulate in the form of Google form through
whatsapp, Facebook, twitter and other social media’s. Hence we are planning to get
maximum responses in order to make the research more accurate and more reliable by
following simple random method
7.DATA ANALYSIS METHOD:

In the data analysis part, we have interpreted the data that we have collected. The
interpretation is done based on the pie charts and to collect these data we have conducted a
survey regarding the impact of social media on consumer behavior from 100 respondents. We
have also added few charts and diagrams to effectively project the data that we have
interpreted. We have done the graphical representation of data obtained through pie chart and
bar diagrams.

8. RESULTS AND DICUSSION:

Responses for the questionnaire survey:

We have conducted research for our topic through online questionnaire and we
have received 100 responses on the topic . The data we have collected is
represented in graphs and percentage.

Out of 100 responses collected 44.4% people were female and 55.6% are male.
The respondents included the people of different ages comprising of friends,
family members, classmates and college mates of our team members.
The age range of the respondents shows that 91% people from 18-25 category
have responded to this questionnaire and 6% of people who responded were of
26-32 age range and other 3% consist of people from other age range groups.

Out of the respondents 65% people use Facebook social media and 26% people
use Social Medias other than listed social media.
out of 100 respondents 67% of them use social media to connect with friends ,
34 people use social media to catch up on latest news and gossips whereas 11
and 15 people respectively use social media to find friends, whereas 19 and 21
people respectively use social media to get information on brands and products
or services.

Out of the respondents 47% people follow 1-5 brands or companies on social
media. Wherein 23% of the people do not follow any companies or brands on
the social media. Other 30% people follow more than 5 brands or companies on
social media sites.

Among the respondents 43% of them use social media for finding out
information about certain product and service, whereas 41% people use social
media for finding new products and service.
Among the respondents 77% of the people trust social media for the source of
information on products and services , but 23% people are not sure and don’t
have belief on the information on products and services.

People have a tendency to get attracted to good looking things immediately likewise many
people have an habit of purchasing things which they have seen in advertisements. Among
the respondents of the questionnaire 37% people have purchased 2-5 product or services as a
result of advertisement on social media sites. It shows that social media has an immense
impact on consumer behavior. We can also see that 33% of people have not purchased things
seeing advertisement on social media websites. Looking at this data we can come to a
conclusion that 67% of people have been influenced by social media advertisements and have
purchased one or other products or service looking at the social media advertisements.
People tend to choose different sources for information about certain products. In this survey we
can see that 30% of people refer brands own website as a source of information, 16% of people
prefer will seek information from friends and collegues where as 12% of people collect information
from social media and the list follows.

we can see in this bar diagram that 42 people pay lot of attention to advertisement on social media
pages. Whereas 43 people do not pay close attention to any advertisments.
Among the respondents 77% of people say that social media is an effective way to reach the customer.
whereas 235 people don’t agree with that statement as they say that social media is not so effective
way to reach the customer.

12. Has it become effective to you when you referred social media for certain products ?

Among the respondents 77% of people say that social media is an effective way to reach the customer.
whereas 235 people don’t agree with that statement as they say that social media is not so effective
way to reach the customer

 Highest number of people use social media to connect with their friends
 47% of the people follow up to 5 brands on social media
 Most of the people use ‘brands’ social media pages to find out information about certain
products
 Highest number of people trust social media as a source of information on products and service
  Only 37% of people have purchased the products/services as a result of advertisement on social
media
 Majority of the people think social media is an effective way to reach them(customer)

 The size of the sample compared to the population is small and hence it might not signify
the ideas of entire population. The geographical area of this study is confined to JKSHIM
campus students alone.

10. CONCLUSION
To conclude we can say that the impact of social media on behavior of consumer is very high. Many
respondents have reflected that social media has provided a more effective platforms to communicate
with one another and with the company. From this research, it can be observed that consumers are
actively utilizing social media platforms as a tool in validating of the purchase decisions; however,
consumers are deemed to be inactive in sharing their word of mouth to others with the available social
media platforms.
Social media has considered as a powerful tool in getting relevant information, while mass media
creates awareness of certain discounts or promotions.
Finally the core objective of the entire research was to find out the changes that social media has
brought to consumers in their decision making process.

11. IMPROVEMENT FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

 The research can be conducted by taking into account even more respondents
 The research could be of particular city or town
 The research could be conducted taking into account various other variables and
parameters
 The research can be conducted by using different question patterns

Scope

This study is mainly planned to understand the various influences of social media on consumer’s
behavior and also to know which group of people are affected more. There are many available
reports and studies each rather aims to help businesses to gain a better understanding in social
media marketing but not to identify reasons that how social media has changed theirs and
consumers decision making process.

Therefore, by having the starting point from the perception of consumer, and by collecting data
for the consumer’s point of view.
We also aim to serve as an indicator to potential readers of how they can learn from the impacts
of social media on consumers at various situations that is at time of purchasing things, election ,
creating desires etc.

limitations for the study

 Containing low responses' rates due to time constraints to finish this study. .

 The way of distributing online surveys, this research would show big gap among
Research's limitations include those general problems related to online surveys, male and
female responses because online surveys are uncontrollable in term of these aspects.
 The information obtained from this survey may not be accurate as people might not
answer them with full interest.

12. REFERENCES

Source of collecting information

We are collecting information from primary sources and secondary sources

Primary sources: Information will be collected by conducting survey by circulating online
questionnaire through Google forms to people. These people will be of of different age groups,
different occupation, different income levels, and different status (married or not).

Secondary data: Internet, public opinion, newspapers, magazines and journals.

Journals of M. Nick Hajli Birkbeck, University of London –“A study on impact of social media
on consumers” published in International Journal of Marketing research VOL56, ISSUE 3

Dr. Sourbhi Chaturvedi, Rahul Barbar- vol: 2(2), June 2014-“Impact of social media on
consumer behavior”.
Jesslyn Miranda’s project article “A Study on impact of social media on consumer behavior
“(unpublished) submitted to St.Aloysious College in 2017.

www.wikipedia.com

www.thesus.com

13. APPENDICES

QUESTIONARE

A Survey on Impact of Social Media on Consumer Behavior

This survey is conducted for the purpose of research to understand the Impact of Social Media on
Consumer Behavior

1. What is your Gender?

o Male
o Female

2. What is your age range?

o 18-25
o 26-32
o 33-40
o 41-50
o 51-60
o 60+

3. Which of these social media/networking sites do you use? (Please select 'none' if you do not
use any and proceed straight to question 8)

o Facebook
o Twitter
o LinkedIn
o Forums
o None
 o Other

4. Which of the following do you use social media websites for?

o To connect with friends

o To find new friends
o To find old friends
o To get information on brands
o To get information on products/service
o To catch up on latest news/gossip
o To play games

5. How many brands or companies do you follow on Social Media websites? E.g. Facebook and
Twitter?

o 0
o 1-5
o 6-15
o 16-30
o 31-60
o 60+

6. If you follow any brands, which of the following do you do on the brands' social media pages?

o Find new products/services

o Find out information about a certain product/service
o Discuss products or services with other followers of the brand
o Give feedback to the brand on products/services
o Connect with likeminded people

7. Do you trust social media as a source of information on products and services?

o Yes
o No

8. How many products/services have you purchased as a result of advertisements on social media
websites?

o 0
o 1
 o 2-5
o 6-10
o 10-20
o 21-30
o 31-40
o 40+

9. What is your preferred source of information on a product /service?

o A brands' own website

o A friend or colleague that has prior knowledge of the product /service
o Social Media websites e.g. Facebook or Twitter
o Television programmers
o Television adverts
o Magazines Articles
o Internet search engines
o Physical shops or dealerships
o Forums- Product and Lifestyle

10. Please tick which statement you feel suits you in relation to advertisements on social media
websites

o I pay lots of attention to advertisements on social media websites

o I didn't know there were advertisements on social media websites
o I pay no attention to advertisements on social media websites
o I would like social media websites to ban advertisements

11. Do you think that social media is an effective way to reach you as a customer

o Yes
o No

12. Has it become effective to you when you referred social media for certain products ?

o Yes
o No