Social media impact on buying behavior of Singapore Youths

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Introduction

Social media is the leading edge for most businesses to employ marketing strategies. Social media presents incomparable opportunities for businesses to create brand awareness and attain customers with several plat forms and low barriers. Social media is a vital area of concern for marketing practitioners and scholars. Study shows that 88% of marketers use social media and spend over $60 billion yearly on social media marketing. Social media marketing is an affordable and exceptional way for businesses to broaden their revelation to the public. Some of the platforms used include face book and twitter where social media improves on customer service and thus enabling businesses to access to new information about their customers. Followers and Fans will post their comments about the business on the platform and help the business to improve on their production and services(Kirsh, 2010).

However, Hackers are a threat to businesses and they may take over the business and may feed false information to the public about the business making it to fail. Therefore it is vital for businesses to take precaution while sharing passwords. As much as a business may try to use several social media channels, it has to make investment on time and effort. When the media is left unattended, the potential customers may have negative impression which will result to loss of potential customers who are the real followers. Before beginning a social media, a business ought to have a marketing strategy to ensure they provide frequent communication and the required to have social media efficiently.

Aims and objectives

To discover the effect of social media marketing on Singapore youth buying decision

The aim is to learn if Singapore youths use social media as a tool for research and reassess before buying products online (Close 2012).

Research Project Structure

This research project involves a social media marketing critical literature review, on consumer and Singapore youth. It investigates on whether Singapore youth buying behavior are impacted by social media. It includes a methodology that is used for report and why it is used for this report, as well as an analysis and outcomes from the data collected in this research and the conclusion and recommendation made from it (Mick, 2012).

Social Media’s Literature Review

Technology took a turn of events in the 21st century where communication changed rapidly from telephone, Mobile phones texts, internet mails and now the social media. Online communication is now a phenomenon that has intrigued many analysts. Analysts have now taken the popularity of the social media and speculate that the marketing field has found a new point of sale. Social media is a platform that enables people to connect with each other .The ideology behind it was to create a technical foundation for users to educate one another .The sources of online information are mainly used by marketers to share products with consumers on their products, services and brands in the available market..

Social media networking sites include, Face book, Flick, you tube, LinkedIn, twitter and many more. Business has found a new platform of engaging customers virtually and this has strengthened bond between organization and customers. Multinational corporations are using social media sites to acquire feed back through online dialogue e.g. Coca Cola, Nike and others. Studies have shown that Uses and gratification theory can be relevant in assisting social media uses. Gratification are good predictors and show how customers can use media to fulfill their needs and want. They can also predict media use and recurring media use. There are different frameworks that explain some relevant themes such as:

Social interaction: The social communication between two or more individuals is referred to as social interaction. This theme uses social media to assist, meet people and helps organization become conversant with social happenings while interact with others. Information seeking: The uses and gratification theory uses information obtained from research and internet usage to help self educate and information. Pass time: The passing of time and relieve boredom is called pass time, the uses and gratification statement suggest individuals use internet when bored or have nothing to do. Relaxation and Entertainment: Uses and gratification Theory assumes social media relieves people of stress and acts as a source of entertainment and enjoyment. Communicatory Utility: This is the ability to facilitate interpersonal communication and effectiveness in conversational values. The construct also assists in provision of information to share with others through the internet. Convenience utility: Convenience for internet use has enabled online shoppers to get products faster. Through advertising information on services and goods reaches clients easier (Otnes, 2012).

The Nielsen’s annual global social media report has cited the influence of social media on Singaporeans consumers purchasing decisions .Singaporeans discussed products and services such as restaurants, foods and beverages purchases which are based on social media sites. Singaporeans have said that it would be better to hear a referral on traveling and entertainment through social media. It is estimated that 68 %to 70 % of consumers in Singapore shop online. The report broadened the aspect of internet marketing which had clearly influenced the market. Beverages and travel issues were discussed online which would be an ideal place to market a product. The managing director of Nielsen indicated that social media can impact business by becoming a positive favor with consumers. Social media provided a huge opportunity an as the survey suggested it showed the correlation between social media sentiments and intention to purchase products and services.

Source

Importance of Understanding Consumer behavior

The actions that consumers take in purchasing various goods and services is an ongoing process since taste and needs change overtime. Marketing managers must always evaluate the success of current efforts by implementing changes when necessary to attain maximum profitability or success. A proper marketing mix and knowledge of consumer behaviour will help managers understand factors that influence purchasing decisions. Consumer behaviour explores on why people purchase things and what motivates them and the decisions they make following their actions. A good example in the Automobile Industry, if clients require GPRS trackers to be placed for security purposes the manufactures can manufacture cars according to customer’s decisions. The manager through research on consumer behaviour figured out the consumer decisions making criteria.

Consumer Decision making process

The steps below show how consumer decisions when purchasing a product

Post purchase Behavior

Evaluation of alternatives

Information search

Problem Recognition

Example of a situation

Problem recognition: Perceive a need of the item needed.

Information search: Attracted by a site that sells what you need and gather information. Then you chat with interested parties

Evaluation of alternatives: Self evaluation on performance and price

Purchase decision: Then after making up once mind we buy the product

Post purchase behavior: After purchasing share user experience through the platform and compare real performance with expectations.

Consumers go through 5 stages before the actual purchase of a product or service. The stages indicate how a consumer solves the problem of need. The stages include:

Need recognition: Purchasing a product requires one to have the need for that product or recognize the need to use the product or service. The need which is a desire for something can be influenced by external or internal stimuli. Internal stimuli’s are normal experiences such as the desire to buy new cloths; this is a need to buy more cloths because you perceive they are not enough. External stimuli: They are experiences by others .Friends will share about a new designer cloth and this might influence you to buy.

Information search: Research has to be done to acquire the best product or service to satisfy the need. Information gathered from internal or external sources should assist consumers to get an alternative to satisfy.

Evaluation of Alternatives: Scale of attributes can benefit consumers in evaluation of the products and services. Market controlled information originates from marketers finding what brand consumers are likely to evoke from the set. Consumers look for alternatives during this stage of problem solving process.

Purchase decision: Consumer behavior is regarded as a changing on e depending on taste, need and climate. At this stage the consumer purchases the product, he/she will have chosen the best product to satisfy the need.

Post Purchase consumer behavior: After purchasing, consumers share the experience through the social media platform and compare real performance with expectations. At this stage the marketers try to assist the consumer feel good about the product. They offer after sales services in case of repair and support the decision making process

Singapore Youth

Some research shows that 98% of youths between age 15-24 use computer and internet, in 2010, 99% in2011 and 96%. This can be illustrated in the figure below.

Youth Individual internet and computer users’ percentage in Singapore

More Singapore youths are advancing and own smart phone. The figure below shows the top 3 internet activities carried out by youth in Singapore.

Top 3 internet activities carried on by Singapore youth.

In conclusion Singapore youth know about social media and therefore it is easy to reach to them through social media.

3. Research Methodology

3.1 Quantitative Research approach

Choosing a given research strategy is key to ensuring that such a strategy is best answering a given research question, objectives and, that such strategies cannot be avoided. The researcher has decided to use primary and secondary quantitative approaches for the research. Creswell describes quantitative research as one that explains phenomena through collecting numerical data analyzed mathematically in discrete statistics (Lee, 2010). The reason behind the research choice is specifically from the nature of the study requiring a quantitative research method to measure the relationship between the variables. Such a quantitative approach may be deemed as “pattern-matching”; this alludes to the predictive approach to intervention for example, choosing a post-intervention pattern of effects and circumstances appearing to be effective, or without effects

Quantitative research helps maximize reliability, generalize ability of results, objectivity and create predictions. Harlell states that a quantitative approach requires the researcher leave his or her biasness, perceptions and experiences to be objective undertaking the research and making conclusions. Johnson and Onwuegbuzie stated the strengths of these quantitative researches being to examine and authenticate theories constructed currently on why and how phenomena occur .The outcomes are often numerical and precise; data collection is fast too .Furthermore ,studies conducted in quantitative approach bring strong answers ,solid and supported However, Burns (2000) stated the demerits of quantitative research as ;difficult to read and comprehend , hard for average educational journal readers to comprehend the quantitative reports statistical aspects, de-contextualize forms of human behavior as compared to qualitative approaches. Anderson and Taylor stated that quantitative approaches have inadequate richness and depth of data due to the enormous number o respondents using the same methods making it hard to understand every participant’s data. A quantitative approach uses a questionnaire design to calculate and asses to gain key characteristics and patterns of the given population with mathematical precision. Light et al indicated that, survey researches can contribute to more advancement on the whole topic. The survey finds answers to questions like, “How many people feel a given way?” and “How often are they engaged in certain behaviors?” Bryman and Bell Proposed the importance of measurements in a quantitative study as to allow more precise estimates of the degree of associations between concepts. A survey also enables the researcher to see comparisons among each sub-group precise and clearer. It also requires participants being randomly sampled posses likelihood.

3.2 Data Collection

Online surveys proved to being a crucial research instrument for different research fields as official statistics, social researches and marketing. In this study, the 11 item questionnaires are to be self-completed online by participants in a sample size of fifty consisting of 25 males and 25 females of Singaporean residence aged 15-35.

3.3 Self-completion Questionnaires

Self-completion questionnaire are better since they separate the interviewer and the participants when participants are conducting the survey providing anonymity for the respondent hence canceling chances of biasness in responses arising from variability of interviewers’ characteristics and skills. This ensures honesty of participants when responding to sensitive subjects.

Reference

Mick, D. G. (2012). Transformative consumer research for personal and collective well-being.

New York: Routledge.

Kirsh, S. J. (2010). Media and youth: a developmental perspective. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-

Blackwell.

Close, A. (2012). Online consumer behavior: theory and research in social media, advertising,

and e-tail. New York: Routledge.

Ayanso, A. (). Harnessing the power of social media and web analytics.

Lee, K. Y. (2010). The Singapore story memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. (2nd Ed) Singapore:

Singapore Press Holdings.

Singapore Government (2013). Infocommunication development Authorities of Singapore:

Singapore

Consumer lifestyles in Singapore: integrated market information system.. (2000). London:

Euromonitor.

Otnes, C. (2012). Gender, culture, and consumer behavior. New York: Routledge.