LUROP Undergraduate Research Symposium Presentation 2014 GfK’s Next Generation Marketing Research Competition Semifinalists’ present The Impact of Social Media on Consumer Involvement

1. GfK’s Next Generation Marketing Research Competition Semifinalists’ present
The Impact of Social Media on Consumer Involvement
Loyola University Chicago- Quinlan School of Business
Nic Icaza Junior, Marketing Major | Louis Jaime Junior, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Major | Iris Wen Junior, Marketing Major
Background
With businesses becoming increasingly global, social media marketing has become an indispensable and cost efficient tool for product branding, obtaining a representational consumer profile, increasing
brand exposure, and directly interacting with the target market. Current social media marketing strategies are not as effective as they might be to accurately target consumers, generate attention-grabbing
advertisements, establish brand loyalty, differentiate their brand, and provide a consumer experience to increase leisure in the consumer’s life. In order to generate insights that improve
current business-to-consumer social media marketing strategies, cultivate innovation, and exceed revenue goals, an opportunity was found to collect data with the intention to discover opportunities
that further consumer involvement with social media during the holiday season.
Managerial Implications:
The value in social media is assessed through the organization’s ability to foster consumer
relationships. Social media users connect through their habits and desires, and social media
marketing can promote brand visibility and increase engagement. During the holiday season, social
media consumption can provide brand awareness and convey brand identity. This includes brand
innovations, lead generation, and business-to-consumer communication. Associations existing
between consumer involvement with social media and consumption patterns appear through the
research, thus allowing organizations to better define their target audience for social media activity
during holiday season.
Social Media
During the holiday season, 54 percent of consumers used social media to look for sales and
discounts, also, researched gift ideas. Further, sharing and commenting on stores and sales were
ranked second and third to the usage of social media, respectively. Since communication is an
encompassing part of all social media platforms, the usage of social media for gift ideas showed a
surprising 41 percent of social media users shared product reviews with friends online (“Usage of
Social Media for Holiday Shopping in 2012”).
Research Objectives:
Identify the visibility of social media marketing during the holiday season;
Investigate consumers’ desired level of involvement through social media;
Compare involvement of consumers on social media to business activities;
And generate social media market strategies to further engage consumers in the holiday season.
Consumer Involvement
In the past ten years, there has been a consistent growth in e-commerce; in 2013, retail e-commerce
sales during the holiday months of November and December totaled $46.55 billion, an
increase of over $4 billion dollars to the previous year (comScore).
participants between the ages of 26 to 34 show the most interest in using social media to create a
holiday wish list. The growing social media users between the ages of 35 to 54 show interest in using
social media to sharing holiday offers. Since half of all social media users under the age of 35 follow
their friends’ business recommendations, business-to-consumer activities on social media can have
a significant i 684,478 pieces of content are shared per minute mpact on word-of-mouth marketing practiced online (Baur).
100,000 Tweets sent per minute
48 hours of video content are uploaded per minute
Methodology
Qualtrics Survey
-Distributed Thanksgiving 2013 to mid- January 2014
-Distribution: Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, e-mail, and
word of mouth
-“Gamified” experience, survey blocking, funnel approach,
reduced bailout
-26 questions: 19 nominal, 2 ordinal, 2 interval, 2 ratio questions
Focus Group
-6 participants that fell in the sampling frame
-Held post-holiday season
-Engagement questions were used for detailed insights from
participants
-Exploration questions investigated specific consumer perceptions
In-depth Interview
-3 participants conducted in person, on the phone, and over Skype
-Held post-holiday season
-Emphasized memorable advertising and promotions, brand
awareness, and how the holiday season shapes social media
activity
Conclusion
Visibility of Social Media Marketing
49.3% gift ideas generated from social media
# 1 # 2
How communicate with consumers:
- “Tell me about some advertisements you
remember from the holiday season.” The
responses implied that consumer recall is no
better at the holiday season than it is at any
other time during the year.
Desired Involvement through Social Media
50% find excitement very important
51% used to research gift ideas
49.3% self-fulfillment is very important
Smartphone & Computer users are more
likely to connect with brands
Facebook is the preferred social media platform
for receiving product information and
advertisements
36% of users sought special offers
Social Media to Business Activities
Top 3 Applications:
-Increased Twitter usage observed during Black
Friday and Cyber Monday
Engage Consumer during the Holiday Season
-While 62.5 percent of respondents
acknowledged that they share photos through
social media during the season, 84.9 percent
don’t share videos. (implications from this
finding could indicate that marketing
communications be channeled through social
media platforms where photo sharing is
prevalent)
-Awareness of brands and industries to produce
more rich and engaging experiences
- “I may also see what my friends’ ‘likes’ and
‘pins’ are to get inspiration for what they might
want as a gift.” - Karen