Business Project Plan

ASSIGNMENT 2

PROPOSED WORKING TITLE:

“To identify the role and significance of social networking to enhance

the effectiveness of marketing strategies in comparison to traditional word-of-

mouth.”

BY

Student Id: s0269881

Student Name: Gopala sravan

Student Id: s0267814

Student Name: Nikilmittapally

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2

Proposed Working Title 3

Project Description 3-4

Significance of Proposed Project 5-6

Research Questions 6

Literature Review 6-8

Methodology 9

Management of Data and Ethical Responsibilities 9-10

References 11-12

Proposed Working Title

The working title of this business plan is “to identify the role and significance of

social networking to enhance the effectiveness of marketing strategies in comparison to

traditional word-of-mouth.”

Project Description

In this technological and globalized era, the internet has become one of the main parts

of the individual’s life. Increasing importance of social networking and e-commerce has

influenced the perception and buying behavior of consumers at a vast extent (Glynn, Huge &

Hoffman, 2012). Aid of information and modern communication technologies has improved

the buying habits of consumers from physical shopping to internet shopping. Nowadays,

social networking has become an effective tool of communication for the marketers in

comparison to word-of-moth technology, which influences the consumer’s perception in a

progressive way (Pitt &Berthon, 2011). But having said so, it has also to be stated that some

traditional modes of marketing are still continuing to prove their efficacy in bringing about

more business to a firm and in expanding the customer base. In this respect the effectiveness

of traditional word-of-mouth marketing must be mentioned. Traditional word-of-mouth

marketing has, for long, been used by marketers for promoting new products, and even today

a good number of consumers trust in this particular mode of traditional marketing. Even

today, innumerable individuals tend to believe in the word-of-mouth of their friends and

relatives in terms of product quality and brand image. But there are several shortcomings of

traditional word-of-mouth marketing which can be addressed by social media marketing.

Thus, apart from determining if social media marketing is superior to traditional word-of-

mouth marketing, the main aim of this proposed project is to analyze the role of social

networking to enhance the effectiveness of marketing strategies and why it is significant for

the marketers in comparison to traditional word-of-mouth. On the basis of this aim,

subsequent objectives will be achieved:

To determine if, in the era of globalization and technological advancements, word-of-

mouth marketing can sustain its efficacy more than social networking marketing

strategy.

To compare the impact of social networking and traditional word of mouth strategy

on consumer’s persuasion.

To critically explore the determinants, which motivates and organization to use social

networking and approach customers

To analyze the role and significance of social networking for the marketers so that

they can make more effective strategies for the product promotion.

It is mentioned in the study of Okazaki &Yague (2012) that the social networking is

an electronic process, which facilitates the consumers to deal with business people,

organizations and individual marketers to meet their buying needs without going to the stores.

It is also supported by Hung, Chou & Dong (2011) that marketers use social networking sites

to promote the products and services and interact with the customers by using electronic

communication medium, it is a time saving, less expensive and highly effective technology

than their traditional mediums of marketing and approaching the customers. According to a

report given by Chaffey (2016), all over the world, there is a 17% growth in the number of

active social media users from January 2015 to January 2016.

Apart from this, study of Rassega, et al. (2015) also depicted that in order to persuade

the customers and approach global market; it is considerable for the marketers pursue the

buying behavior of consumers through their marketing campaign on social networking

websites. Further, according to Valos, et al., (2016), in the growth and development of e-

commerce and online shopping, social networking contributes a major role. Thus, marketers

can include social networking in their marketing mix strategies and promotional campaigns.

The focus of the study would be on the social media marketing approach of

automobile giant Toyota. Wang (2014) has pointed out that “Toyota has taken a leap from

being recognized as a traditional and somewhat boring manufacturing company to a digitally-

savvy and –driven brand. They’ve gone from displaying print advertisements to running

creative social media campaigns to increase brand awareness and customer acquisition.”

Moreover, considering the recent success of Toyota and the company’s gradual emergence as

a global automobile leader also has motivated the researchers to concentrate on how Toyota

has deviated from the path of word-of-mouth marketing and from other traditional marketing

modes, and how it has successfully switched over to social networking and eventually

succeeded in enhancing the brand image of its products via the implementation of social

media marketing strategies.

Significance of Proposed Project

This project will be significant for the local, national and international business

organizations as well as the consumers. In terms of evaluation of the advantages and benefits

of social networking sites, the business firms will make efforts to enhance the extent of

product promotion programs by using social networking sites. For a local firm, this study

would have significance to expand business and approach national and international

customers without making a physical entry into a new market (Men & Tsai, 2014). Similarly,

in the national and international market, the firm would learn how to approach the consumers

and promote the product on social networking sites rather than focusing on word-of-mouth

strategy.

Determination of product and service promotion on social networking sites helps

companies to create a sustainable competitive environment in the market. In addition to this,

theory development of social networking and marketing strategies would help the

international and national business firms to understand the different factors which can be

added in the marketing strategies and programs and influence the buying behavior. In this

way, the business firm can make different promotional campaigns and launch them on social

networking sites to persuade consumer’s buying decision (Rassega, et al., 2015).Apart from

this, it is a significant project for individuals to understand that how they can use social

networking sites to choose the best product with high quality, smart features and low cost,

which will fulfill their buying needs.

But having said so, it also becomes imperative to state that social media marketing is

also ingrained with certain disadvantages. Primarily, there are a myriad of customers who

may dislike the entire approach of social networking for marketing products. There are many

customers who still do not like to be contacted by companies via social networking sites or

via technologies like e-mail. Moreover, there are certain limitations that are already ingrained

in social media networking. In this respect, Sandilands (2016) has pointed out that, “The

average business owner does not fully understand the risks, and the field is still so new that it

is difficult to evaluate the qualifications of social media “experts” who offer their services.”

But the advantages of using social media marketing often outweigh the relative

disadvantages, and it is due to this that the research is going to emphasize the importance of

social networking as a vital part of a company’s marketing strategy.

Research Questions

On the basis of the research aims and objectives the question, which would be

answered in this project are as follows:

1. What is social networking process and its role to promote and market the product and

services?

2. Does social networking, marketing process is more effective than the traditional

marketing such as word of mouth?

3. How Toyota can use social networking to enhance the marketing strategies and

promotional programs of the firm?

Literature Review

The superiority of social media marketing over traditional word-of-mouth marketing

strategies has been evident in the success accomplished by industry leaders like Toyota.

Toyota’s success has been, to a large extent, reliant on its immaculate use of social

networking as a means of promoting its products. But to ascertain the advantages of social

media marketing in the context of ushering business development and strengthening market

hold, it is imperative to explore the advantages and disadvantages of both word-of-mouth

marketing and social media marketing. Such exploration will make it clear whether or not

social networking can actually be used as an effective tool for marketing.

In the article, “Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings

from an Internet Social Networking Site,” Trusov, Bucklin, and Pauwels (2009) have pointed

out that, though word-of-mouth communication and marketing strategies are appealing to

many firms due to the low cost involved in such marketing process, and though such

traditional means of marketing products have been proved to be effective in overcoming

consumer resistance; empirical evidence of such efficacy is still to be considered to be scant.

Wagner (2016), on the other hand, has argued that traditional word-of-mouth marketing

strategy is evolving, and even though it was considered to be the primary marketing strategy

of many firms in the past, with the advent of the Internet, the entire scenario has changed.

Wagner (2016) has pointed out that, today, businesses are in the need of blending word-of-

mouth marketing strategies with social media marketing strategies. In this regard it must be

noted that “The advantages of overcoming customer resistance and the ease of using social

media on the Internet make word-of-mouth marketing an important tool for businesses

desiring to grow while spending fewer marketing dollars” (Wagner, 2016). Even though it is

a fact that social media marketing is the need of the hour, the importance of word-of-mouth

marketing strategy has not diminished entirely. Referring to Nielsen’s Global Trust in

Advertising report, Wagner (2016) has pointed out that about 92 percent of consumers have

opined that they trust brands on the basis of recommendations from friends and family

members, and this is a pointer to the fact that traditional word-of-mouth marketing strategy

has the potential to establish trust between a firm’s products and the consumers. Moreover,

traditional word-of-mouth marketing has the potential to help the marketer to, as suggested

by Wagner (2016), “break down trust barriers by relying on influential customers willing to

talk about your company.” But in the course of appraising the advantages of word-of-mouth

marketing, Wagner (2016) has also pointed out that, even in this era of globalization, there

are many consumers who dislike to be contacted by salesperson over phone for product

marketing and promotion. Such word-of-mouth marketing strategy increases the risk of

losing potential customers. It is in this respect that the reliance on social media marketing

becomes essential for a firm striving to enjoy greater market share.

In the research paper, “Evaluating the Impact of Social Media on Traditional

Marketing,” Nekatibebe (2012) has emphasized, on the one hand, the advantages of using

social networking as a means of product or service promotion, and, on the other hand, the

disadvantages related to social media marketing. Nekatibebe (2012) has stated that, being an

emergent phenomenon in business marketing and in public relations, social media has been

given much importance by today’s marketers. Nekatibebe (2012) has pointed out that, “Tech

savvy marketers are incorporating social media in their marketing strategies to connect with

their customers and prospects.” Nekatibebe (2012) has also argued that the advantage of

organizing processes like marketing intelligence, sentiment research, public relations,

customer management etc. under the umbrella of social media marketing, has also turned the

process into an effective means of product or service promotion. But Nekatibebe (2012) has

also suggested that, “Despite all of the supposed benefits, embarking on the social media

band wagon has been a daunting task for corporate marketers and executives, partly because

of its fairly recent introduction to business world and skepticism surrounding its usefulness.”

Furthermore, it has been observed by many researchers that excessive use of social

networking as a means of marketing can actually put businesses in trouble. In the article,

“Social Media and Negative Word of Mouth: Strategies for Handling Unexpected

Comments,” Thomas et al. (2012) have pointed out that as social networking approach is

conversational in nature, and as the social networking platforms are more open to the users,

marketers have little control over what is said about their products on the social networking

sites. Hence, it can be seen that even though social media networking has gained more

popularity than traditional word-of-mouth marketing campaigns, the latter suffers from some

anomalies. Whenever a business is striving to substitute traditional marketing approaches

with social media marketing, it must be ready with strategies to combat negative word-of-

mouth which is an integral part of social media marketing. But, having said so, it must be

noted that social media marketing provides a firm with the opportunity to know better who

are its potential customers and what its present customers really want out of its products. In

the article, “16 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Social Media Marketing,” it has been

pointed out that a firm’s access to the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts of its customers

and to the updates of its customers actually provide it with the chance of knowing better the

needs of the customers. It is based on this knowledge that the firm can then tailor its products

befitting the needs of the targeted consumer group (The Content Factory, 2016). This is

among the advantages of using social media marketing. It has been observed that Toyota has

been able to effectively use social networking as a powerful tool for marketing it brands.

Hinting on the proper and effective use of social media marketing by Toyota, Wang (2014)

has pointed out how “As a part of its 2014 Tundra promotion, Toyota filmed 15-second

Instagram videos and pushed them through paid Facebook ads.” Wang (2014) has opined that

“The concept and execution of the videos were simple, allowing Toyota to reduce major

advertising costs while engaging with the target audience.” This instance is a pointer to the

fact that, if utilized properly, social media marketing strategies can be proved to be more

effective than traditional word-of-mouth promotions.

Methodology

The research is going to be thoroughly reliant on secondary data. For obtaining

secondary data, online databases would be explored and a systematic review of literature

would be done. As the focus would be thoroughly on Toyota’s use of social networking as a

means of marketing its brands, the research would concentrate more on online articles,

published reports, publicly available data (statistical, demographic, and visual) which are

related to Toyota’s social media marketing strategies. As the research is going to be based on

the qualitative methodology, surveys and face-to-face interviews would be included in the

course of data collection. The qualitative research methodology has been deemed suitable for

the research by the researchers because applying this methodology the researchers can

conduct an in-depth examination of the phenomenon and this can provide opportunity to

refrain from rigidly defining the variables (“Advantages of Qualitative Research”, n.d.).

Moreover, this research methodology would help the researchers in dealing with value-laden

questions and in examining those complex questions that cannot be addressed by quantitative

methods (“Advantages of Qualitative Research”, n.d.). A survey would be conducted on a

specific group of consumers in order to ascertain if amidst the boom in the use of social

networking people still prefer to purchase products based on the recommendations of their

family members, friends and other close circles. Face-to-face interviews would also be

conducted in order to determine whether or not most of today’s tech savvy consumers prefer

to use products or brands which are marketed substantially on social networking sites. The

data gathered from the survey and interview would then be evaluated in the lights of

information gathered via online research and systematic review of literature.

Management of Data and Ethical Responsibilities

One of the primary objectives of the researchers would be to sustain research

integrity. In order to remain ethically responsible and accountable, the researchers would

adhere to ethical data management and analysis practices. The researchers would refrain from

any act of fabricating or falsifying the data obtained in order to uphold research integrity and

data management ethics. The researchers are going to ensure that a responsible data

management process is initiated with the onset of planning for data collection, and they

would also ensure that the research would adhere to protocol approval and it would be

compliant to the research code of ethics. The data management process would involve record

keeping in a way that would ensure data accuracy and that would help the researchers in

refraining from bias (University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015). In case of survey and interviews,

informed consent would be gathered so that no ethical violation may accidentally occur in the

course of data collection and data management. Moreover, the researchers are going to keep

in mind the fact that, “Data collected from human research participants and data of a

proprietary or sensitive nature require special consideration regarding secure storage,

restricted access, and ultimate disposal” (University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2015), and they

would take sufficient steps to fulfill the concerned requirements.

(2,735 words)

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