THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN KENYA
 
By
Andrew
 
A Business Research Proposal submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Business Administration-Procurement in Riara School of Business, Riara University
 
March, 2021
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Social media advertising is defined as the selling and buying products and services through an online digital platform known as the internet. The internet is continually changing the economy of countries, business models, supply chain management cycles and customer reach (Sivasankaran, 2017). Green (2017) asserts that in the United States, 90% of businesses have a Facebook, Instagram and Twitter page. There is no study considering it worldwide, but one thing is for sure: this trend is rising .i.e., food chains, business groups and private firms; social media is open to every business. Thanks to their structure and investment capacity, big chains quickly follow and adapt to new and innovative formats. Almost all chains optimize their presence on social media, and more independent firms manage it.
According to Naresh (2017), various platforms are provided by social media advertising such as Facebook, Linked In, YouTube, and Twitter to market products and services for various industries. Social media advertising offers media technologies that can facilitate online functionality and monitoring perspectives wherein the data gathered can develop their services for customer satisfaction. Various firms can market themselves in social media and networking. Henry (2020) states that most firms are using social media to engage customers and clients in dialogue and recognize their needs amid this pandemic. Through these networking sites, firms can interact with consumers before, during, and after the vacation experience.
According to Mahalaxmi (2018), social media advertising uses various online media to reach a specified target market through online search engines, websites, social media, E-marketing and mobile marketing. According to Bradley (2018), the term social media refers to web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. He also refers to it as a group of internet-based applications that build on the web’s ideological and technological foundations that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Chaffey (2012) states that it is applying the internet and related digital technologies in combination with conventional communication to accomplish marketing objectives. Consumer buying behaviour is how individuals, organizations, and groups select, buy, and use products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy their needs and wants (Rasool, 2018).
The increased widespread development and use of internet technologies have called for marketers to reinvent their marketing strategies to keep up with changing consumers’ trends. With the current trend moving towards direct interaction with brands, digital marketing has been referred to as one of the most efficient ways to foster direct interaction with consumers (Davis, 2017). According to Tiago and Verissimo (2019), human interactions have changed significantly due to engagement on social networks; the rapid growth of web platforms has facilitated behavioral changes related to activities, habits and interactions among consumers. Kithinji (2014) also reports that social media advertising is relatively cheaper. Its results are easier to measure since the data on views, clicks, and hours spent on websites is readily available and effective and measurable. Social media advertising, therefore, mainly involves the use of the internet and social media platforms.
Järvinen and Karjaluoto (2016) established that internet and electronic commerce technologies transform the entire economy and change business models, revenue streams, customer bases, and supply chains. Hajli (2015) asserts that new business models are emerging in every industry of the New Economy. The travel industry and ticketing have seen a sea change in the last decade. One estimate suggests that the online travel industry contributes about 76% of total net commerce in Kenya. Ticketing is now done either on third-party websites or airline sites.  According to Kauffman, Lai & Ho (2017), online shopping customers are delighted with prompt delivery and flawless payment mechanisms, building trust in consumers. Pitt, Berthon and Berthon (2017) argue that even online classifieds have made a successful transition online with jobs and matrimonial taking the lead.
Online retailers are now pushing a more significant number of categories such as electronics and white goods. In these emerging models, intangible assets such as relationships, knowledge, people, brands, and systems are taking center stage (Ravald, 2016). Buying behaviour of an individual plays a predominant role in consumer behavior in general and among the youth in particular (Park, Kim & Forney, 2018). Consumer buying behaviour is a process of establishing relationships between products offered in the market and targeted buying behaviour groups (Stewart, 2019). It involves segmenting the market based on buying behaviour dimensions, positioning the product in a way that appeals to the activities, interests and opinions of the targeted market and undertaking specific promotional campaigns which exploit buying behaviour appeals to enhance the market value of the offered product (Wang & Chen, 2014).
In Kenya, the internet is around 15 years old since its inception (Kimani, 2015). According to Meltzer (2016), Kenya is among the top country population of internet users with 145 million consumers. Digital marketing has 3-4% of organized retailing. This reveals that some elements are a hindrance to the prosperity of online marketing in Kenya. The risk perceived by the youth in Kenya is one of them. Papadopoulos, Martín, Cleveland and Laroche (2014) assert that the prosperity of online shopping in Kenya is enormous because of its immense population size. The government is investing a lot in internet infrastructure. Organized retailing can’t reach the rural part of Kenya, whereas online retailers find their buyers in cities, including villages across Kenya. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics recently announced Kenya’s current population to be 47.6 million (KNBS, 2019), while the Global System for Mobile Communications reported that Kenya’s mobile market had grown significantly over the last few years, with Mobile coverage increasing to 96% of the population. There are now over 3,500 3G sites in the country. As a result, in Kenya, consumers, businesses, and government continue to benefit from mobile’s positive developments (GSMA intelligence, 2018).

Statement of the Problem

In today’s world, technology and innovation are praised for being the newest and in cutting edge can quickly become obsolete tomorrow. The increase in the adoption of digital marketing strategies such as social media, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), display adverts, and websites can be attributed to increased internet penetration, cheap internet-enabled phones, and ICT integration with most daily activities (Wang & Chang, 2017). The internet is a disruptive technological innovation, but consumers everywhere are waking up to the idea of shopping online. The impact on retailing has been profound, and as a result, many businesses are changing the channels they use to sell their goods and services (Bokde & Seshan, 2019). In some parts of the world, retailers have been quick off the mark in developing their own individually branded e-commerce stores, whereas, in other parts, the e-marketplace dominates (Sheth & Parvatiyar, 2015).
Statistics show that 75% of persons aged under 25 use the internet daily, with 35% recorded to be doing searches for information on local businesses, 42% making actual online international purchases at least once a year, and 6% make online purchases less often than a year (Cheung & Lee, 2017). The rise of social media advertising has also presented marketing departments with numerous ways to advertise their products, e.g., customer engagement opportunities to connect with the brand through live sessions on social media platforms. Social media takes a lot of the time the consumer spends online, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat etc. Facebook alone this year reported that a total of 23% of youth could be reached with adverts on Facebook. This is a whole 3.9% increase from last year’s 19.1%. This shows that a significant number of people have access to advertisements on social media; as such digital marketing continues to play a significant role in affecting consumer purchase behavior (Keipos Analysis, 2019).
Kenya’s mobile market is fast growing since it is mostly made up of young consumers who use mobile phones for communication in both their daily and professional lives. For such consumers, tastes and preferences are continually changing very quickly, especially for those under 21. Millennials and Generation Z have been unpredictable in their purchase decisions both online and at physical stores. Marketers find it harder and harder to handle the ever-changing needs of buyers. These changes in expectations of the customers are their consumer buying behaviour. It is essential to understand customer needs, tastes and preferences, especially younger consumers as they have the largest market share than in any other segment in Kenya. Having noted a gap in predicting consumer buying behaviour by digital marketers, it became imperative to understand the impact of social media advertising on Kenya’s consumer buying behavior.

Objectives of the Study

General objective

The study’s general objective is to determine the impact of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour in Kenya.
1.3.2 Specific objective

To explore the impact of information satisfaction on consumer buying behaviour.
To investigate the role of consumer trust on consumer buying behaviour.
To analyze how online shopping experience impacts consumer buying behaviour.

1.4  Research Questions

What is the impact of information satisfaction on consumer buying behaviour?
What is the role of consumer trust in consumer buying behaviour?

How does online shopping experience impact consumer buying behaviour?

1.5 Significance of the Study
Social media advertising has brought tremendous changes in how the marketer markets the product and how the customers are buying the same. Many factors influence an individual’s consumer buying behavior, and these factors invariably affect the marketer to match the needs of the customers in general and young consumers in particular. So, it is realized that there is a need to study Digital Marketing and its impact on youth’s buying behavior.
1.5.1 Investors
It offers credibility of the investment to the stakeholders. The investors involved in any organization will need credibility and assurance that investing in will yield a good return on investment (ROI). The research will also give guidance on what to expect upon investment into social media advertising—not forgetting that it will also give guidance on what to avoid and the possible loopholes.
1.5.2 Customers
To the customers, a study on their behaviour will result in better products that will seek to satisfy the needs identified during the research. During the interview, consumers are expected to give their honest feedback. The research study will hope to reduce disparities on the finite research on consumers in the local market. Moreover, it will complement the extensive international research on social media advertising.
 
1.5.3 Academia
To other Scholars, the research paper will result in further study and the impact of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour.

Scope of The Study/ Delimitation of the Study

The study will be limited to the impact of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour in Kenya. The study will focus on the years 2020 & 2021. Young consumers will be used as a major case study. Data related to the digital population, urbanization, mobile subscription, internet users, social media users and social media platforms will be collected in the years mentioned. Finally, the time series of data will be available only for this period. Using a participatory and mixed method approach of data collection, the study will look at public relations effectiveness.
1.7 Delimitation of the Study
While conducting this research, some assumptions will be made, such as assuming that every respondent is aware of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour through a source of media. The study will also assume that the respondents’ feedback is accurate and honest and that the secondary research used to support the case for social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour in this study depicts a similar progression and evolution similar to the more recent studies on impact of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour.

Limitation of the Study

The study is restricted to select young consumers who the researcher is determined to be crucial informants for the survey. Due to the scale of the pandemic, only a proportion of respondents will be sampled. The researcher is also limited in fully exploring the impact of the subject due to the unique and evolutionary nature of social media advertising on consumer buying behaviour.
 
 
1.9 Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is an analytical tool with several variations and contexts that can be used to make conceptual distinctions and organize ideas. Strong conceptual frameworks capture something real and do this in a way that is easy to recall and apply (Robinson, 2009). However, suppose one variable depends upon or is a consequence of the other variable. In that case, it is termed as a dependent variable, and the variable that is antecedent to the dependent variable is termed as an independent variable (Kothari, 2004). In this study, consumer buying behaviour is the dependent variable and depends on social media advertising, including online shopping experience, consumer trust, and information satisfaction. Following is an illustration of the relationship between the dependent and the independent variables of this study.

 
                                                                             
Independent Variables                                                                    Dependent Variable
 

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