Is Social Media Marketing More Effective than Traditional Marketing Techniques Used in Qatar Context - Coursework Example

• Introduction

The twenty first century has witnessed the arrival of many innovative technologies and social media is one among them. According Brake and Safko (2009), social media is a collection of applications made with the assistance of Web 2.0. At the time of introduction of social media like Facebook, even Mark Zuckerberg did not think about the business possibilities of his invention. However, the huge popularity of social media forced marketers to think deeply about how to utilize social media for marketing products and services. Today, social media is the number one advertising and marketing channel for many companies.

Social media has opened up another space for marketers and advertisers. Until the arrival of social media, companies spent millions of dollars for traditional advertisings such as print ads, display ads, television ads etc. However, none of these channels helped marketers to communicate directly with the customers and know their views and opinions of the products and services offered. Social media helped marketers to communicate directly with customers and solve their grievances quickly. In other words, customer relationship management has been improved dramatically after the arrival of social media. Word of Mouth (WOM) publicity is another area in which social media helped companies all over the world.

Qatar is one country in which huge business activities and construction activities are going on at present. The 2022 FIFA World Cup is going to take place in Qatar. As a result of that, a lot of businesses are currently taking place in this Middle Eastern state. Qatari population is very much passionate towards social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Google plus, MySpace, LinkedIn, Skype etc. Therefore, it is possible for the entrepreneurs in Qatar to use social media effectively for marketing their products and services.

• • Aim and objectives

The purpose of this research is to enhance the media marketing through comparative study of traditional and social media marketing techniques. The research objectives are designed to reflect the systematic inter-relationship between technology as a transformation vehicle and the theoretical underpinning of behavioral science (Lodico, 2010; Crouch, 2012). The objectives of the proposed study are:

• To investigate the effectiveness of social media marketing as compared to traditional marketing in influencing the perceptions of the consumers in Qatar.
• To determine how the two marketing strategies under the lens have different underlying mechanisms of action.
• To investigate how social media marketing improve customer relationship management?
• To assess how social media marketing improves communication between a company and its customers
• To evaluate how these two strategies can have different output in terms of influencing the consumer behavior.
• To assess the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing faced by the companies in Qatar.
• To form a generic recommendation for the Qatar firms regarding the implication of social media marketing techniques.
  • Research questions

The proposed research questions should add to empirical and theoretical aspect of media marketing and consumer behavior literature (Lodico, 2010; Crouch, 2012; Crowther, 2012). The main reason for choosing this topic is both, the professional organizational needs and the researchers endeavor to contribute to knowledge. The research question dichotomy does represent the problem from both, the consumer behavior theories and the media marketing advocate perspectives (Lodico, 2010; Crowther, 2012). Thus, the research question is stated as follows:

• How the social media marketing strategy emerges in contrast to the traditional marketing strategies (weighing up the pros and cons of both types) in Qatar?
• What are the social media advertising and marketing strategies used by entrepreneurs for attracting more customers?
• Why social media marketing helps companies to improve customer relationship management?
• How social media helps companies to improve the communication between an organization and its customers

1.3 Importance of the study

The importance or the rationale of this research work can be discussed in the light of the effectiveness of marketing strategies of a firm. The global business scenario has become increasingly competitive, where the firms are looking forward to adopt new marketing techniques to create stronger brand recall to improve their footfall and sales volume. In this context, the usage of social media marketing techniques have proven to be quite efficient in reaching out to the target customers based on their individual preferences and needs. Therefore a comparison between the social media and the traditional media highlight the advantages and disadvantages that the companies can face while using both types of marketing techniques. This will help them to make better decisions in terms of their marketing activities.

Modern companies, especially the companies in Qatar are looking for options to reduce expenditure on marketing and advertising activities. A substantial share of the revenue of the Qatari companies is currently spending for advertising and marketing. Yet, many companies in Qatar failed to make profits. This study will help Qatar companies to identify various dimensions of social media marketing and help them in reducing the expenditure on marketing and advertising.

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Social media marketing strategies

According to Rouse (2006), social networking is a process in which a person expands his or her social activities through individuals. At the time of introduction of social networks, nobody thought about the business potential associated with these new media of communication. Today, social media is used extensively for the marketing and advertising of various products and services of companies. The marketing through social networks is labelled as social media marketing and the commercial activities through social media are labelled as social commerce at present (Business Insider, 2013).

According to Vasquez (2013), the ability to create best social content, social advertising and segmentation, and social customer determine the success of social media marketing (Vasquez, 2013). The content on the social media should be attractive to the people. Then only they will spend more time for watching it. With the help of eye catching themes, pictures and captions, it is possible for social media marketers to attract more traffic towards their website. Creation of fresh approaches at every level of customer contact is necessary for the success of social media marketing (Wolf et al. 2006).

“The greatest benefit of social media marketing is that it can increase awareness about a company within a short time. Social media marketing allows businesses to create a loyal clientele that opts for your products/services regularly” (Designer-den, 2011). Majority of the new products introduced in the current market with the help of social media marketing campaigns. The discussions about the expected product or service may start even months before the actual introduction.

According to Chu (2011), users who are Facebook group members maintain a more favorable attitude toward social media and advertising. Users who have more positive attitudes toward advertising are more likely to join a brand or a retailer’s Facebook group to receive promotional messages.

2.2 advantages of social media marketing over traditional marketing

As per the views of Bob DeStefano (2015), the success of social media marketing can be measured successfully with the help of three things: Reach, Engagement and Conversion. While Reach refers to the number of people reached with the help of social media content Engagement refers to the attention received by that particular social media content. On the other hand Conversion refers to the number of people converted from user to customer (DeStefano, 2015). In traditional marketing the success and failure of a marketing campaign cannot be evaluated accurately. For example, it will be difficult to know how many people might have seen a print ad and purchased a particular product. On the other hand it is possible to measure the success of a social network advertisement accurately with the help of the likes or followers it receives.

Social media marketing is extremely cheap compared to traditional marketing. The capability of social media in providing one of the cheapest advertising and marketing channels, is forcing companies all over the world to give more attention to social commerce and social media marketing. A recent research showed that the cost of a newspaper advertisement can range from $200 to $20000, depending on the size and placement of the ad. A radio ad cost can range from $3/60 spots to $500/60 spots. On the other hand an average prime time television ad may cost around $110000 (Cowden, 2014). On the other hand, social media advertising campaigns may cost companies only a few hundred or thousands of dollars

Social media can provide real early warning systems for any reputation issues to companies (Vasquez, 2013). In traditional marketing, it may take long time before companies identify the problems associated with their products services or marketing campaigns. In the other hand in social media marketing, the results can be evaluated within a few days from the beginning of the campaign. Because of the quicker feedback from the market, marketers can take remedial measures or changes in the marketing strategies quickly while conducting social media marketing.

2.3 Role of social media in improving customer relationship management

Improved customer care is one of the major advantages of social media marketing over traditional marketing. Traditional marketing has limitations in communicating directly with the consumers. On the other hand social media provides an opportunity for the entrepreneurs to communicate directly with the consumers and solve their problems. “Social media has always been about engagement, listening and responding and that's what we strive to achieve” (Vasquez, 2013, p.9). Ultimately, the success and failure of a product in a market is determined by the customers in that market. It is necessary to develop an attachment among the customers towards the product with the help of social media marketing activities. Such attachments can be developed only when the social media advertising campaigns conducted in a user friendly manner. Attending and solving of customer complaints in a timely manner is extremely important in improving customer trust in a product or service.

According to Smits and Mogos (2013) there are four main opportunities produced by the evolution of Social media marketing: the ability to get in touch with more customers, the ability to collect customer feedbacks, the ability to interact effectively with customers, and the ability to monitor customer activities effectively. All these four opportunities enhance customer relationship management (CRM) in one way or another. Many other studies such as the studies by Saldanha and Krishnan (2011) and Stockdale et al., (2012) were also successful in establishing positive relationship between social media marketing and CRM. As per the views of Larson and Watson (2011), social media marketing would help companies to extend service support to the customers. Dunn (2010) has cited an example to prove the argument of Larson and Watson. He has mentioned that Best Buy was able to improve its relations with customers with the introduction of Twelpforce on Twitter where customers are able to add their tech problems

2.4 Role of social media in improving communication between companies and customers

Customer targeting abilities of traditional marketing is extremely weak compared to that of social media marketing. With the help of custom made emails, social contents and ads it is possible for social media marketers to reach the targeted consumer segment easily. For example, Apple Inc. has conducted many opinion polls through social networks to know the popularity of iPhone among teenage customers. They have assessed the readiness of teenagers to purchase iPhone over Samsung phones with the help of the above mentioned opinion poll (Faw, 2013). In traditional marketing, it will be difficult to target a particular segment of consumers in the market.

According to Baird and Parasnis (2011), the interactions or communication between the buyers and sellers or the companies and its customers through social network platforms would positively influence the buyer or consumer behaviors (Baird and Parasnis 2011). Saldanha and Krishnan (2011), mentioned that the use of social media by entrepreneurs will enable consumers to interact freely with the sellers of the products and services, and hence the customer knowledge about the products and services will be increased. Stockdale et al.(2012) also expressed similar views. They pointed out that the interactions between the entrepreneur and the consumers through social networks will bring positive results if controlled properly.

2.5 Scope for social media marketing in Qatar

Creation of social network pages in different languages is necessary for the success of social media marketing campaigns. For example, Samsung has created 44 Facebook Pages for 28 countries in 25 languages (Vasquez, 2013). Some companies have the habit of creating social network pages only in English language. It should be noted that majority of the people in countries such as Qatar do not have proper knowledge in English language. Therefore, it is necessary for the social media marketers in Qatar to create social network pages in Arabic language rather than English language in order to attract more people. In the absence of Arabic webpages, companies cannot communicate effectively with majority of the Qatari population.

Even though there are many social media, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, BBM and Twitter seem to be the most favorite ones for the Qatari people. Therefore, social media marketers in Qatar should give more importance to marketing campaigns through the above mentioned media. The following illustration provides an idea about the social network popularity in Qatar compared to that in other parts of the world

(CGCS, 2015)

It is evident from the above illustration that WhatsApp is the most favorite social media in Qatar followed by Instagram, BBM, Twitter and Facebook. While conducting social media marketing in Qatar, no entrepreneur can avoid WhatsApp. A large scale of group discussions is going on among Qataris through WhatsApp. Out of the 97% of all online Qatari nationals, 87% are WhatsApp users. The major reason for the lack of popularity of Facebook and Twitter in Qatar is the reluctance of these social networks in providing contents in Arabic language initially. At the same time, WhatsApp was able to provide Arabic even from the beginning of its introduction in Qatar (CGCS, 2015).

According to Bampo et al (2008), viral advertising can be defined as the unpaid peer to peer communication of provocative content with the help of computers or internet to persuade or influence an audience to pass along the content to others. The core of viral marketing is mouth publicity or Word of Mouth (WOM) publicity “Recently, there has been a growing interest in understanding how WOM (Word Of Mouth), particularly online WOM (which is a form of social media), impacts sales, diffusion, and other marketing performance measures” (Stephen & Galak, 2010, p.5-6). WOM is believed to be the most effective advertising channel for many companies at present. Modern consumers are well aware of the fabricated or misleading traditional advertisements. Traditional advertisers always project only the merits of the products and services and hide the demerits. On the other hand, WOM does not have such limitations. Users of a product or service do not have obligation to a company and they can spread their true views and opinions about the products and services they use through social networks. According to Mkh marketing (2013), WOM contributes 10 – 54% of the marketing impact for a brand. Moreover, WOM can surpass the traditional marketing activities in terms of results. A 10% increase in WOM would result in a 1.5% sales hike. With the introduction of social media, a new term called eWOM or electronic word of mouth is getting popularity. WOM or eWOM can be used effectively only when social networks are able to provide content in local language. In other words, providing Arabic content in Qatar is extremely important for the social media marketers in Qatar.

3.0 Methodology

3.1 Research design

According to Miller and Salkind (2002), a framework or approach that helps the researcher to collect and analyze data in a suitable manner can be considered as research design. An effective research design will help the researcher to draw inferences and identify relationships among the collected data and research variables (Miller and Salkind, 2002).

The major research questions which are going to be investigated as part of the proposed study are not well defined. It is difficult to understand the nature of the current research question such as whether the Qataris prefer social media marketing more than traditional marketing or not. Only after the completion of the study, the above question can be answered. While studying topics like this, exploratory research designs are used. It helps the researchers to understand current situation properly and to identify the key problems and concepts, based on previous research studies (Jupp, 2006). An exploratory research design involves various elements as shown in the research onion below

Research Onion (Saunders et al., 2009)

It is evident from the above illustration that research philosophy, research approach, research strategies, data collection methods data analysis are some of the major steps involved in an exploratory research

3.2 Research philosophy

Positivism and naturalism are some of the major philosophies used in academic studies like this. “Researchers who make use of quantitative tools, techniques that emphasise measuring and counting, are called positivists whereas researchers who prefer the qualitative tools of observation, questioning, and description are called naturalists” (Sagepub, n.d., p.14).

Positivists use quantitative data more and more since their arguments are purely based on scientific evidences. In other words, positivists never accept any argument unless it is supported by scientific methods of testing. Numbers and statistics are important for them. On the other hand, naturalists are interested more in qualitative data. They usually give more importance to the views, opinions, suggestions, probabilities and possibilities. For example, the naturalists are ready to assess the popularity of social networks based on the public opinions. On the other hand, positivists may not accept such a view based on public opinion alone. They will conduct scientific methods of testing such as surveys before arriving at such conclusions. According to Hallebone and Priest (2009), positivism works on the notion that a research methodology should be free from the influence of researcher’s beliefs and attitudes it should be objectively and scientifically proven. If positivism works on facts, naturalism works on probabilities or possibilities. Naturalism gives more importance to analysis, judgements, beliefs and probabilities (The University of Utah, 2009).

3.3 Research approach

Research approach is helpful in connecting theories with realities (Burney 2008). The proposed study will make use of Inductive and deductive research approaches. Deductive approach is used by positivists whereas induction is used by naturalists. Since positivism and naturalism are the intended research philosophies, the use of inductive and deductive approach is inevitable for the proposed study. Inductive approach makes arguments based on assumptions and probabilities (Sekaran, 2006) whereas deductive approach helps a researcher to collect data for supporting theories and principles (Easterby et al. 2012)

3.4 Data collection methods

Both primary and secondary research methods will be employed for the collection of data for the intended study. Primary research will be conducted with the help of a survey among Qataris. Moreover the researcher has plans to conduct at least 2 interviews for the collection of the primary data. The interviews will be conducted with the top officials of some of the major companies which are engaged in social media marketing in Qatar. The survey will be conducted online and the researcher expects to collect at least 200 responses. Random sampling method will be employed for the survey. Secondary data will be collected from books, journals, articles, websites, newspapers etc.

3.5 Sampling

Random sampling methods were employed for the selection of subjects for the survey. According to Valerie J. Easton and John H. McColl's, random sampling is a sampling method in which individuals from a larger group or population are selected for the study by chance. In such a sampling method, each individual in the study population gets equal chances for being selected and hence the researcher may get responses from all types of people in a given population. The targeted population in the intended study will be the people of Qatar. The random sampling method will help the researcher to collect data from different communities in Qatar. It is possible for the researcher to collect data from the locals as well as expatriates while random sampling methods employed for the intended study. It is not necessary that the views and opinions of the youths about social media marketing may be the same as that of the old people. Moreover, females and males may have different opinions about the effectiveness of social media marketing. Random sampling will help the researcher to collect the views and opinions of people of all ages and all communities from Qatar. WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter will be used for the administration of survey. It should be noted that WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are some of the most popular social media in Qatar. That is why these online channels were selected for the administration of the intended online survey.

3.6 Data analysis

Since the intended research approach is inductive and deductive, the proposed study will make use of induction and deduction methods of data analysis. Induction and deduction methods of data analysis makes use of following algorithms

If X => Y, and Y => Z, then X => Z (deduction)

If X => Y, and X => Z, then Y => Z (induction) (Apgaylard, 2013)

From the above algorithms, it is evident that deduction always gives 100% right results whereas induction cannot guarantee that. Facts are the core of deduction, whereas probabilities are the core of induction. These two methods of data analysis can be further explained with the help of the following illustrations

Theory observations/findings (Deduction)

Observations/findings Theory/Induction (Bryman and Bell 2007, p.13).

While deduction tries to collect data for supporting a theory, induction tries to make a theory or argument from the collected data. In other words, theorizing will always involve the use of both the processes (Partington, 2002).

3.7 Time Scale

The time schedule of the proposed study is depicted in the figure given below.

Project/

phase

Dec

2016

Jan

2017

Feb

2017

Mar

2017

April

2017

May

2017

Proposal

Lit. Review/Sec. data collection

Primary data collection

Data analysis

Initial drafts

Final draft

The proposed study will start in the month of December 2016 and is expected to end in May 2016. In other words, the study is intended to complete within 6 months from its beginning. Proposal will be submitted in December 2016 and it is expected that the approval will be received in this month itself. Once the proposal is approved, the researcher will start the secondary data collection in January 2017, primary data collection in February 2017, and data analysis in March 2017. The initial drafts will be submitted in the month of April 2017 and the final draft will be submitted in May 2017 as shown in the time schedule above.

3.8 Resources and budget

Research staff, secretarial staff and money are some of the resources necessary for the proposed study. It is necessary for the researcher to travel a lot for the successful completion of the intended study. Moreover, it is necessary to collect all useful secondary information from credible sources. At least $25000 is required to meet the expenses of the proposed study.

3.9 Ethical consideration

Informed consent was taken from all interview participants. The names and private data of the people who took part in the interview and survey will not be disclosed under any circumstances, to avoid ethical issues later. Any controversial views and opinions expressed by the interviewees will not be disclosed. Plagiarism issue will be avoided as much as possible in the final work. All the information taken from external sources will be referenced in APA format in the final paper.

3.10 Research Limitations

One of the major limitations of this research will be the lack of primary data. The researcher has plans to use a survey and 2 interviews as the primary data collection methods. Budgetary constraints and time constraints forced the researcher to avoid more interviews. The survey will use only closed ended questions or questions with multiple choice answers in order to improve the response rate. Some open ended questions in the survey would have given more reliability and credibility to the data collected. However, the concerns about the acceptance of such questions by the participants forced the researcher to avoid such questions in the survey. Lack of funding, time and other resources are some other limitations of the intended research.

3.11 Summary

It is expected that the survey will give more quantitative data and the interviews will provide more qualitative data. Both quantitative data has the ability to substantiate the qualitative data. In other words, the arguments or opinions put forward by the interviewees will get more credibility only when the data collected from the survey support it. Same way, secondary research will help the researcher to collect data from the past. Blending of past data with current data or data from the survey and interviews will help the researcher to achieve the objectives and answer the research questions of the intended study. For example, the intended interviews and the survey will have questions about the advantages of disadvantages of social media marketing. If the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing mentioned by the interviewees are supported by the survey participants, the researcher can make a strong conclusion or argument. In short the instruments intended to use for the intended study are suitable as per the views of the researcher.