University of Ulster

QA Business School

Dissertation submitted for partial fulfillment

For degree of MSc in International Business

TITLE:

Social network marketing effectiveness in UK consumermarket:

A study on Argos

NAME:

Student Number:

Month and Year:

Supervisor:

Abstract

Social networks are defined as online communities of people who

usually share their common interest, opinion, ideas and activities.

Just before 10 years only a very few people were used to purchase

online while in the last decade the UK has turned into one of the

most developed online retail markets in the world and Argos is a

very important contributor there. Finally it is said that for

getting success in retail business it is very important not to

solely depending on the online social network marketing. Though

recent trends in market mechanism good social network marketing can

help to boost in retail market but at the same to get success in the

market and to retain long term customer relationship a good

combination of social network marketing and other traditional

marketing must be developed by a retailer like Argos. This

dissertation has been made based on a survey on the users of social

network who shop at Argos. In the beginning portion a detailed

literature review has been done about the development of social

network marketing and related data has been collected by conducting

a survey on the customers of Argos. Different graphs and diagrams

has been used for presenting the research findings. Finally a

2 | P a g e

conclusion has been made with a recommendation on the overall

findings and analysis of the dissertation.

3 | P a g e

Acknowledgement

Firstly I would like to express my deep gratitude and

appreciation to all members of dissertation

committee. I would like to thank my supervisor

MrTYRTYRTam for his illuminating teaching and clarity

of thought, his generosity, kindness and his

enthusiasm. I have greatly benefitted from his

guidelines and wish that I could have pursued all his

excellent suggestions. His ability to simplify

intricate concept and pare down to the essentials has

enhanced my understanding of this research

I would also like to convey my heartfelt thanks to my

teachers, professors, advisors, librarians,

laboratory assistance, family, friends and well

wishers who help me live away from home. Special

thanks are due to one of my friends RTTETTRTERT for

his help and keep me motivated.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to my

parents and my elder brother XXXXXXXXX for their

unconditional love, trust and support all through the

years.

4 | P a g e

Table of Contents

Abstract.............................................................2

Chapter 1.0........................................................6

Introduction..........................................................61.1 Introduction:................................................7

1.2 What Are Social Networks?....................................81.3 Background of the research:..................................9

1.4 Statement of Problems.......................................111.5 Objectives of the study:....................................11

1.6 Structure of the report.....................................121.7 Scope of the Study..........................................12

1.8 Conclusion:.................................................14

Chapter 2.0.......................................................14Literature review.....................................................14

5 | P a g e

2.2 Literature review...........................................172.3 Definition and development of social network marketing......23

2.3.1 Development history of social networks..................242.3.2 The Early Years.........................................25

2.3.3 Phases of social network marketing......................262.3.4 Basic or key social network marketing concept...........27

2.3.5 What social marketing is................................272.3.6 What social marketing is not............................28

2.4 Background of the organization..............................282.4 Social media & Social penetration theory....................34

2.5 Conclusion..................................................35

Chapter 3.0.......................................................37Research Methodology.................................................37

3.1 Introduction................................................383.2 Research purpose............................................38

3.3 Research approach...........................................393.4 Strategic Approach of Research..............................39

3.5 Identification of Samples...................................403.6 Systems of Data Compilation.................................41

3.7 Analysis of Data............................................413.8 Parameters & unit of analysis...............................41

3.10 Restrictions of the Study..................................423.11 Conclusion.................................................43

Chapter 4.0.......................................................44

Analysis and Findings..................................................444.1 Introduction................................................45

4.2 Why Argos uses Social media network?........................464.3 How Argos used social media techniques for its advantage?. . .46

4.4 Internet marketing strategies...............................47

6 | P a g e

4.5 Trends and what’s significant in 2013.......................474.6 True value of social media and Argos’ mistake...............48

4.7 The essential tools for the understanding online marketplace 484.8 The online reality and use of social media in the UK retailers................................................................49

4.9 Analysis based on sample survey...............................49Chapter 5.0.......................................................65

Discussions.........................................................65Chapter 6.0.......................................................75

Conclusion & recommendations..........................................756.1 Conclusion..................................................76

6.2 Recommendations.............................................79References and bibliography:......................................80

7 | P a g e

Chapter 1.0

Introduction

8 | P a g e

1.1 Introduction:

Social networks are defined as online communities of people who

usually share their common interest, opinion, ideas and activities.

They provide users with numerous ways to communicate with other

users through blogs, e-mail, instant messaging and newsfeeds. Social

network sites are very powerful to facilitate interaction among

people. Major examples of social network marketing are Facebook,

twitter, google+, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Picassa, Linkedin etc.

The users who are interested to join through social networking site

usually create a profile. Interests and activities of users are

shared in this profile. They can connect with friends and invite

others to join with them by searching the network. It is necessary

to confirm that the users are friends before they are linked in the

social network. Communication with friends and groups become easier

after becoming linked through network. Personal information and

activities can be updated regularly. Affinity, life style,

psychographics, age etc. make users self organized. And these social

9 | P a g e

networks provide the best opportunity for different kind of users to

be connected.

Social networking sites are attracting the attention of researchers

because of its popularity. It has become an important tool in

shaping public opinion. Social media are becoming more important in

taking consumer’s purchasing decisions. Marketers must be learned

enough to leverage the social networking sites to share their

activities. Social networking sites can become more important as a

trusted source to communicate information than advertising. The main

reason behind this is consumers give much of the content and the

marketers control over messaging and positioning are not so strong.

Social networks are organized in a way so that the companies which

are sharing their activities can take participation in conversation

with consumers through messaging.

1.2 What Are Social Networks?

Social Networks are online service and a platform that facilitates

the building of social relations among people to share their common

interests, activities, views, background etc. Representation of

users generally through a profile and social links are necessary for

social networking service. Various additional services are also

provided by these sites. The users can interact with each other over

the network by e-mail, blogs, instant messaging, newsfeeds. Most of

10 | P a g e

these services are web based. These services facilitate

communication among people. There is difference between social

networking service and online community service. Social networking

services are individual centered services and online community

services are usually group centered. Social networking services

usually allow ideas, activities, events, and interests of users to

be shared over the networks. Examples of social networking sites

include Facebook, twitter, google+, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr,

Picassa, Linkedin etc. Opinions and personal recommendations of

users can be shared on these sites. Consumers consider others

opinion before making decision to any product or service. Statistics

show that almost 80% consumers have more trust on other consumers’

opinion than any medium in terms of taking purchasing decision.

Opinions of other users are more objective than the messages of

companies. These opinions are collected by consumers from various

online sources. Generally two types of roles are served by members

of social networks. They are supply and consumption of content.

Highly influential consumers are the creators of content.

If the proper influencers are reached with a message that they

perceive as valuable, it can become viral. This is tremendously

powerful to marketers, as users don’t feel that the information is

being pushed at them, but referred to them by a trusted friend in a

trusted network.

11 | P a g e

Social media can be thought as a human being sharing ideas,

activities, views, cooperating and creating art, commerce, finding

people to make friends. As a result it is spreading very quickly.

Social networks can be defined as web based services that allow

people to construct their profile, articulate a list of other users

to share opinion and view their list of connections within the

system.

Social network sites are unique because it allow users to articulate

and make visible their social networks. Social Networks are good

means for entertainment and these can become a very effective and

efficient business technique for different kind of users such as

entrepreneurs, writers, actors, musicians or artists. The services

provided by social networking increased its popularity during the

past few years.

1.3 Background of the research:

Argos was founded in 1973 and is one of the successful and unique

multi channel retailer in UK and in many other countries. Success in

retail business usually depends on long term customer relationship

rather than attracting new customer. Argos is mainly recognized for

choice, value and convenience. Competitors are many and the

customers have many options in case of making decisions to buy

products and services. As a result it becomes very difficult to

12 | P a g e

retain consumers and collect new consumers. Argos sells general

merchandise and products over 130 million customers a year from over

700 stores in UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the

telephone. Argos is a large retailer which sells furniture,

appliances and other household goods for different kind of

consumers. The company owns a highly integrated supply chain and

uses an approach of sales through multi channels. Argos sells its

products through traditional sales channels, online, and tele-phone

orders. It integrates its multi-location physical points of sale

with the new channels. This approach has become successful and

results in a rapid growth of total sales and overall turnover. This

indicates that Argos is performing very well in this challenging and

competitive environment.

Over the last two to three years the popularity and rapid growth of

social networking has been observed and it indicates a new culture

in advertising and sharing activities of marketers. Social

networking sites offer users different means to communicate via

internet by using personal computer or mobile phone. The main focus

of this research is on social and communication aspects of social

networking sites. Social networking sites should consider some

rules, conventions and practices to communicate activities. As a

result the users can easily navigate and avoid difficulties. Social

networking sites also have some problems. For example, confusion

13 | P a g e

over privacy settings, communication with unknown people, unintended

consequences of publicly posted sensitive information etc.

Argos is holding a very strong position in social marketing. It is

the first UK retailers for toys and electrical appliances and

furniture, jewellery and sports equipment. The company’s basic idea

is to combine the comfort and convenience of home selection. Argos

uses a mixture of various channels for example television, radio,

news-papers, magazines, posters. Among these channels social media

has become the most powerful channel for marketing. Selection of

these channel depends on which is most effective from time to time.

Argos has made some important changes along with the evolution of

information and communication technologies. How this unique retail

business is performing and doing their business successfully forms

the background of the research.

14 | P a g e

1.4 Statement of Problems

Basic function of marketing is the communication of products and

services. Social network marketing services are becoming more

important among different users for its additional services. So, the

problem statement is “why and how the concept of Social network

marketing is used by the retailers and the effectives of Social

network marketing in UK retail market”.

1.5 Objectives of the study:

The main objective of this study is to gather a complete and detail

understanding on social networking marketing. Now we can break down

this main objective into different specific objectives. These

objectives are explained below:

to set social networking sites in the media literacy, online

and communication environment.

To understand the uses of social networking sites.

To understand the basic elements of social network marketing

of Argos

To understand effective and efficient communication strategies

of Argos and other retailers.

To understand numerous social networks needed for social

networking marketing.

15 | P a g e

to investigate various matters concerning privacy, security

and safety.

To understand the development of social network marketing

strategy.

To understand the attitudes of users to this type of

communication.

To understand how decisions to purchase products and services

of consumers are influenced by social network marketing.

1.6 Structure of the report

The report mainly contains seven chapters. Chapter one and two

includes introductory and literature review part. Idea about social

networks, background, objectives, problem statement and structure of

this report are described. A complete summary of literature review

has been explained in second chapter. Chapter three includes the

idea about methodology of this study. Definition and broad idea

about social network marketing has been explained in fourth chapter.

Chapter five describes how Argos is doing its social network

marketing in a competitive environment. A complete analysis and what

we found by studying on social network marketing of Argos are

included in chapter number six. Chapter seven is the last part of

16 | P a g e

this report and it contains conclusion reached and recommendations

given on social network marketing.

Throughout this research we are conscious about social network

marketing is a very recent development and an efficient

communication tool. In this complex environment it is very difficult

to predict the development of social networking sites. So, we give

focus on the changes from current situation.

1.7 Scope of the Study

A rapid growth of social network marketing indicates a change in the

organization of online communities. The sites are mainly organized

around people. Early public online communities were organized by

topics or topical hierarchies. Social network sites are organized as

personal networks. In social networking era the consumers are

flooded with information. Every day they are searching numerous

sites for their interests. Overlooking on this is not possible for a

business. So the businesses should be satisfied if one tenth of

users search and one tenth of that one tenth becomes the customer of

their product. Social networks’ huge data is the scope of this

study.

The main objective of the study is not to establish whether the use

of social network sites results in low productivity or enhances it.

The study has been conducted in Argos only. Argos is a large

17 | P a g e

retailer selling furniture, appliances and other household goods.

The company has a highly integrated supply chain and uses a multi

channel approach for sales. Argos can sell its goods through

traditional sales channels (retail shops), online (over the

Internet), and through telephone orders. It continues integrating

its multi-location physical points of sale with the new channels.

This approach has been successful, resulting in a rapid increase of

total sales and turnover. As this report is on social network

marketing we need to keep faith on information which is available

over the network. This is another limitation of this research.

In this report network security, cybercrime, pornography, online

marketing and advertisement etc. will be explained briefly but only

as far as they relate to social network sites and workplace

productivity.

Again as this research report will be conducted on the effectiveness

of social media marketing in UK retail market, so various social

network used by the major UK retailers will also be in our scope.

Finally the details of Argos Social network marketing techniques

will also be in our scope of the study.

18 | P a g e

1.8 Conclusion:

Social media is described as a new kind of online media group which

has a number of characteristics. The characteristics are mainly

participation, openness, conversation, community and correctness.

Social media generally encourages contribution of users and a

feedback is expected from interested group. Voting, comments,

sharing of information are also encourages in social media. Social

media is better than traditional media of sharing information as it

is a two way communication. It also allows communities to form and

communicate efficiently. Most of the social networking marketing

thrives on correctness. Social networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts,

forums, content communities, micro blogging are basic forms of

social media. In this research report we have analyzed social

networking marketing effectiveness in UK consumer market and a case

study on Argos. Argos is a large retailer in UK market and it has

been able to accommodate the growth in retail business. It uses

different marketing channels to communicate their activities. Social

network marketing is one of the most successful marketing means.

19 | P a g e

Chapter 2.0

Literature review

20 | P a g e

2.1 Introduction

The ultimate success of a business depends on the effective earnings

of revenue. The earning of revenue depends on the successful

influences on the decisions of the customers. Among the many other

forces of shaping the public opinion and decision towards something

a prominent one is social networking sites which are influencing

almost all the aspects of the business and commerce. They are

increasingly significant in the purchasing decisions of the

consumers through the amplification of word-of-mouth marketing. In

social media the marketers have little control over positioning and

messaging and it is acting as a trusted source of information. Here,

the companies have options to participate in the social networking

and modify the information circulated through the media. At a blink

of eyes it is evident that the participation in the globalized

competitive markets is not a quick fix. It requires proper long term

planning and preparation. There are challenges to face by the

companies. The challenges spreading shades of problems over the

probable successful attainment of goals includes media selection,

content specification of information, format, design,

attractiveness, environmental issues etc. The gender, ethnicity and

21 | P a g e

nationality of the customers are of also crucial importance and

significant to be considered. The problems identification is not

only important issue to respond but also solutions to be reached and

implemented. To demonstrate the problems, solutions, probabilities

and challenges of marketing through social media we are selecting

Argos as our focal point. Argos is the largest general-goods

catalogue merchant retailer in the UK and in the globalized economy

having over 800 stores based in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Throughout this literature review, we should give an overview of the

relative theories, practices, challenges and application of the

theories to different case studies. We will also discuss on the case

studies on Argos as our ultimate focal point.

2.2 Literature review

In the rational goal theory the people are considered as "wanting

more rather than less of a good" which is very prominent in

individual decision making. Sometimes the people are called through

a term “people are wanting animal” in line with the essence of

rational goal. The decisions taken by the people are obviously

depending on the information available to them in a convenient and

economic manner. Normally they get the information from various

sources and generally it is shown in many instances that the

consumers seek the opinion of others when deciding on using or

22 | P a g e

purchasing any product or service. About 78% of the consumers are

seen to seek the opinion from other persons to decide on the

purchase of products or services and they rely on the 3rd party

confirmation more. Sometimes the consumers use the information

available in various social networking media not depending on the

companies’ own marketing initiatives for better opinions. The

information circulated over the social networking media is of

greater importance as it is extremely powerful to marketers because

the information creates the feeling of trustworthiness. As the

information is referred from trusted friends or known ones there is

no feeling that the information is forced to them. So, the

participators of the social network serve 2 roles-

1. They supply the required valuable information among the

users and

2. They consume the content of circulated information.

Social media marketing is the process which center on efforts to

create content which gain website traffic or attention through

social media sites (Thompson SH (2002).

Social network marketing is one of the easily reachable,

comparatively less expensive bases to boost brand awareness and rich

customer service to make the marketing campaigns economic and

efficient. More than 75% of the businesses around the world are now

23 | P a g e

active on the social networking media to groom their effective

marketing communications despite the media’s significant volatility

and advantages (Stroud D. 2007).

The actual expectations and the reality differ in social media

marketing (Shih C 2009). The developing countries like India,

Brazil, and China are using the social media more than that of the

counter parts of developed countries like UK, Canada, Germany and

Australia in line with the reduction in the cost of access to the

internet and the required devices (Weber 2009). The dimensions of

using the social media in the companies are increasing and already

in wide use. Among the other uses, the companies are using the

social media to establish corporate and social relationships and as

well as almost half of the organizations are using it for innovation

in their products and services and to recruit (Scott DM 2009).

The use of social media is becoming progressively more significant

in the businesses of experiential nature such as hospitality and

tourism as there is intangibility and low level of technological

barriers for the average travelers. Among the two significant roles

of the mass social media first one resembles the oldest form of one-

to-one decisional communication regarding anything and the second

one is acting as the disseminator, storage and retrieval of the

information related to various real life situations and necessities.

24 | P a g e

The day-to-day necessities of the businesses, anonymous, large-scale

and ephemeral nature of the internet demand modified and inventive

ways for obtaining, analyzing, interpreting and managing the

contents of the social media. The speed and the modification of the

information and sometimes rumors depend on the structure of the

network and the individual mentality of the actors on the network

(Buckner’s). Various theories can be used in the analysis of the

communication over the networks in social media such as social

penetration theory, social exchange theory, and social network

theory. Due to the advancement in technologies related to

information systems such as open source of information, cellular

phones, low-cost internet access today’s social media communication

increased and advanced. Especially, social media has given consumers

the possibility to create and share information, and that is, to a

large extent, what they are doing (Kotler, Kartajaya, & Setiawan,

2010, pp. 5-7).

Instant sharing of information regarding the products and services

is diminishing the control of companies on the circulation of

related information (ibaid, p.10). So now, some companies are

planning and some companies already implemented social media for

marketing, product development, product design, direct communication

with customers, and expanding the businesses. (Scott 2009). The

constant evolution of the tools, techniques and contents is the main

25 | P a g e

reason for brand promoters’ preference of online media for marketing

(Scott-2009). Consumers are searching social networks, review sites

and so on for reliable information, before deciding whether to buy a

given product or service or not (Molenaar, 2012, p. 142).

People are online as never before and it makes sense and they use it

for almost all purposes related. About 70% people use internet every

day (Seybert, 2011, p. 1) and about 52% of this 70% claim that they

use social media and about 58% ordered goods and services through

internet and which is increasing gradually (ibid, p. 6). So from

the information it is concluded that the internet is acting as one

of the major ways of marketing for the products and services. It is

not only true for the tourism or specific characterized businesses

but also for all kind of businesses.

Due to availability of billions of active users of Face book,

MySpace, Orkut etc on online have made the social media marketing

very popular, interesting, interactive, personal, specific, and

social (Shih 2009). So, the maintenance of absolute conversation at

right time at right place has become possible fulfilling the

ultimate objectives of the businesses creating a feeling of being

honored, informed, valued, and entertained (Chaffey D 2003). With

the changes in the trends, choices, likings of people over time the

people like to be approached with more attractive and differently

26 | P a g e

creative techniques of marketing in place of traditional marketing

which would attract the people few years before Borges (2009).

The social media builds a perfect effective relationship with the

consumers and it is a revolutionary technique of making level

playing field, branding and staffing. Its roots can be found in the

bulletin board systems of 1980s. Previously the users were permitted

to send public and individual messages, share information and create

personal profiles (Lacy K, Hernandez M 2009). The internet has

worked as a catalyst to change the concepts of traditional marketing

through the creative, interesting and informative messaging and

presentation which is the driver of unleashing social changes

(Chaffey 2003). Distinctive arguments may be there but one of the

most prominent intention of the social media marketing is to reach

enormous majority (Stroud 2007). For Fanta and Cherry Coke Coca-Cola

has been promoting on MySpace for the last two years and for Diet

Coke and other drinks on Google’s YouTube (Ricadela 2007).

It is seen among the users of the social sites are mostly interested

in leisure-oriented sites than the average people. Especially they

are interested in consumer goods, music, luxury products, jewelry

etc (Smith 2010). The social media advertisement is a very effective

way of inflating the revenue flow of the organization through

greater market expansion and reaching niche markets (Brinlee, 2007).

27 | P a g e

Most of the social media is created without considering the vast

impacts on the day-to-day life of the people and decision making

needs regarding various issues. Now it is crucially necessary to

develop innovative and goal congruent separate approaches to reach

to the ultimate targeted customers (Eric E 2008).

Donath J, Boyd D 2004 suggested that it is better to start

conversation rather than acquisition with the customers and it is

also better to establish long term deep relation rather than mass

impressions. Through the sharing and caring through suitable

quality products and services and reflecting the customers’ voice in

the business decisions a lifetime customer relationship can be

established. It is better and a current approach of marketing in

new diversified environment to bridge the gap between the customers

and sellers. It can be fulfilled through a bilateral dialogue to

have advocacy in the sophisticated products and services demanded by

the customers (Brinlee D 2007).

Though the companies can’t use the voice of the customers as the

vehicle of the communication but the participative conversation

creates more successful brands through fulfilling the personal

expectation more closely (Lacy K, Hernandez M 2009). Dependency on

the social networks for promoting the products and services posses

both risks and rewards. Some companies are giving more concern on

28 | P a g e

the IT security only where as leaving the security issues from risk

arising from social media marketing. These risks may include the

loss of productivity, loss of valuable information etc. The time

spent on social networking is normally overestimated and the gain in

productivity is relatively underestimated (Nicole K 2007).

In a research by KPMG it is found that the managers use the social

networking media more than that of their employees and 4/10 of that

managers’ employees use the social networking media at least once in

a day (Ricadela A 2007). Even the restricted employees are found to

use the social networking media through their restricted devices or

personal devices (Stroud D. 2007). With allowed access in the social

media during working hours has reduced the amount of strikes and

increased the job satisfaction. This satisfaction is flourished and

added fuel when the companies use the social media for marketing and

promotion (Nicole K 2007). Though some companies only focus on use

of products but not on the marketing of the products social media

has enabled the customers to modify their required products in their

own ways and style. It awards a successful product launch and double

the products’ Face book following (Thompson SH (2002).

So, besides the challenges in using the social networking media for

marketing there are some rewarding elements of it. The rewards are

development of customized products and services, fruitful launching

29 | P a g e

of products and services, perfect development and expected customer

services to gain the longer lasting customer satisfaction, life-long

customer relations and future directions regarding future

development ((Ricadela, A. 2007). Despite the advantages of low cost

circulation of information for marketing and promotion the users of

this media, as a company, should be aware about the creativity,

trends of the day, customer expectations, and most importantly the

ability of the company (Donath J, Boyd D (2004). The companies

should have to perform competitive analysis first to launch the

marketing through social media. The determination of the platform is

in next for knowing the targeted people and the architecture of the

marketing system. Then build the community through setting up

profiles required to better reflect the available and probable

products and services with their respective features. Growing is

important through a better continuous involvement without making and

sinking in common mistakes (Lacy K, Hernandez M 2009).

The management should have the clear concept about the social media

marketing. They should understand that social media is not about the

“hard sell.” The long term customer relationships and stakeholder

connection are the primary objectives. Dedicated resources are

required for longer lasting commitment and that’s why smart

organizations don’t jump into social media because “everyone else is

doing it.” They do it because it’s the right fit for their

30 | P a g e

organization, and their communication strategy (Kartajaya, &

Setiawan, 2010). The organizations should understand and consider

that “doing the right thing is the right thing to do”.

2.3 Definition and development of social network marketing

Before defining social network marketing we need to define what

social networks are. Social networks are defined as online

communities of people who usually share their common interest,

opinion, ideas and activities. It can be said as web based marketing

that permits people to:

construct a profile within a specified system

view their list of connections.

Clear list of other users with whom individuals share

connection

Social networking helps to develop relationship among users.

According to Haythornwaite, 2005, social networking sites can

construct a communication between individuals that other media

cannot. Networking or looking for new people is not the main purpose

of users of these sites. To communicate with people with whom they

are connected is the primary reason for using these sites. Social

networking sites are characterized by many technical features. The

backbone of these sites is constructed by visible profiles of

individuals. Sunden, 2003, said that profiles are unique pages. And

31 | P a g e

individuals can type themselves into being. When anyone wants to

join in any site he or she has to fill up a form containing some

questions. The profile of that individual is generated by using

these answers. Information generally include about age, location,

interests, activities etc. The users can upload profile picture in

his/ her profile.

Social networking is a group of online media which share some common

characteristics. The characteristics are:

Participation

Openness

Conversation

Community

Correctness

Social marketing uses the marketing principles to manipulate human

behavior. Basic marketing principles which social marketing uses

are-

Audience

Action

Exchange

Competition

The four P’s

32 | P a g e

We can conclude that social network marketing is the combination of

social networks and marketing principles which interested users use

to publicize their product and services.

2.3.1 Development history of social networks

The development of social networks can be subdivided into following

events-

The early years

Friendster market fall

Hitting the mainstream

A global phenomenon

Expansion of niche communities

2.3.2 The Early Years

In 1997 the first recognizable social network site was launched. In

1998 SixDegrees.com first allowed individuals to create their

profiles and friend lists. Another site Classmates.com allowed users

to affiliate with their high school and colleges but users could not

create profiles and lists of friends. SixDegrees combined these

features and attracted millions of users. But it failed to make

their business sustainable. It closed its business in 2000.

Weinreich in 2007 said that the SixDegrees was simply a forward

33 | P a g e

looking site and was ahead of its time. There was a complain about

these sites that the individuals can do very few things once they

accept friend requests. From 1997 to 2001 many types of community

tools started to support different combinations of profiles. Such as

AsianAvenue, MiGente and BlackPlanet. Those permitted creation of

personal and professional profiles. A new site LiveJournal was

launched in 1999. It permits one directional communication and

individuals can mark to follow their journals and manage their

privacy settings. In 1999 a Korean virtual site named Cyworld was

launched and added features of social networking sites in 2001. It

was independent from other sites. Another Swedish site called

LinarStorm was reorganized as social network site in 2000. According

to D. Skog LinarStorm contained friend lists, diary pages and

guestbooks. A new era of social network sites began when Ryze.com

was launched in 2001. It permits people to leverage their business

networks. According to A. Scott in a personal communication in 2007

told that the founder of Ryze.com first recognized the site to his

friends. Tribe.net, Friendster and Linkedln sites were strongly

entwined both personally and professionally. Festa in 2003 said that

these sites believed that they could support each other without any

competition. Ryze never get mass popularity as tribe.net and

LinkedIn. Chafkin said that in our internet history Friendster

disappointed mostly.

34 | P a g e

At the last part of this section we can say that social networking

methods were introduced by different founders by the end of 1990s.

Many of those sites began to add more advanced features for users.

With the introduction of Friendster the new generation started to

flourish and became the part of internat mainstream. Later on

MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo got more popularity. Facebook was launched

in 2004 and gradually it became the largest networking site in the

world. The growth and popularity of social networking sites has been

phenomenal. Statistics shows that there are now over 200 active

sites using a wide variety of social networking models.

2.3.3 Phases of social network marketing

The phases of social network marketing help users to be engaged,

informed and efficient consumer and practitioner. The phases are-

1. Define the problem

2. Performance of the market research

3. Develop the marketing strategy

4. Planning intervention

5. Monitoring program and evaluation.

6. Implement the intervention and evaluation.

35 | P a g e

2.3.4 Basic or key social network marketing concept

Some key concepts are very important to be understood by users for

their better understanding of social network marketing. Such as-

Competition

Barriers

Determinants of behavior

Exchange

Action

Market research

Marketing 4 P’s (product, price, place, promotion)

Target audience

Policy

2.3.5 What social marketing is

Social marketing is-

A strategy to change social or behavior.

Targeted to those users who are prepare for a change and have

a reason to care

Efficient and effective use of resources

Activates users or participants

36 | P a g e

An integrated approach and have installment plans.

37 | P a g e

2.3.6 What social marketing is not

Social marketing is not-

Only an advertising

A strategy to deliver slogan and messaging

A very quick process

To campaign images

Done in a vacuum

Social marketing media has changed the fact that how public and

professional conduct their jobs. Individuals are free to communicate

ideas in social media. It provides an environment where individuals

and professionals can converse, promote and improve their images,

brands and listen and response to public reaction.

2.4 Background of the organization

Argos is one of the largest retailers in the world. It was

establisher based on United Kingdom and Ireland. In this study main

focus will be on the various strategies used by the Argos for

marketing their products. Later on the focus will narrow down to the

Social network marketing strategies used by Argos. Again some other

issues will also be considered such as what challenges are faced by

Argos during the development and implementation of Social Network

marketing, what are those actions taken by Argos to overcome those

38 | P a g e

obstacles during the implementation of Social Network Marketing

strategies.

The glorious history of the organization from the very beginning to

the current position of the organization is known to all. Recent

trend on online basis marketing and strategy and access through

online social network and other internet based way of choosing and

shopping of daily required retail products by the consumers in

today’s market has a great impact on the strategy selection by the

retailers. Having the slogan, “Find it, Get it, Argos It”, Argos is

dominating the retail market of UK. Richard Tompkins with his magic

hands brings the Argos today in this peak position. But due to

changes of time the slogan of the Argos also changed to “Don’t shop

for it, Argos it!”, “its So Easy”, and “Helping you live for less.

In 1958 Richard Tompkins established a Green Shield Trading Stamp

Company and the catalogue were renamed to “Argos” in 1973. It was a

very well known incentive plan used by Richard Tompkins to encourage

shopping. There was a special concentration on gift purchasing. In

the later year Richard Tompkins changes his idea of using stamp for

purchasing retail things or gifts to the new idea of cash purchase

of goods in replace of using savings stamp and the place of using

that idea was in Greek city of Argos (Weber L 2009).

39 | P a g e

Thousands of staffs were appointed by Argos in 1978 at the time of

launching. It was got enlisted in London Stock Exchange during 1990.

But before that in 1982 Argos first introduced a Jewellery retail

counter and within that year it becomes the largest Jewellery

retailer in the United Kingdom. Then during 1998 Argos was acquired

by GUS plc and Argos was reshuffled and during the year 2006 it

becomes the part of Home retail Group in UK. To become the market

leader in this as described so many different types of marketing

strategy is used by the Argos. Market structure was changed during

this period and the buying behavior also changed many times and by

the impacts of many incentives of the markets. But now a day the

structure and the shape of the market again changed significantly.

Not only the shape of the market but also the way of shopping

peoples are using now. Social Network Marketing is becoming the most

useful way of marketing now a day but early it was using the

technique “words of mouth” is remain very essential (Kotler et al.

(2010). Again Kotler supports that the technique of using Social

Network Marketing is experiencing a change due to changes the using

of various online Social Network by the consumers. (ibid, pp. 5-7).

Social Network Marketing has now becomes the most creative way of

marketing by the retailers. Again a very creative society has

emerged during the decade. Kotler et al. argue (2010) that this

creative society has been emerged due to the expansion of educated

40 | P a g e

class specially in the developed part of the world who are very

active and becoming more active in using various social network. In

today’s world the people who use internet the words “Facebook,

Twitter, hi5” are very common to them. Due to expansion of the

educated class and the peoples who are becoming the leaders in

making decisions of their own and the decision for the society do

not hesitate making complain about a products or services or any

brand or about the organization in front of the media who lack of

social participation or do not maintain social responsibility

(Kotler et al., 2010, pp. 17-21). Kotler again state another

important reason for increasing the use of social media network is

the lost of trust by consumers on large retailers during the period

of recession in 2008. In that time people started to rely on the

advice of friends and family or other people for selecting their

products or services.

The burning question is about the use social media network is that

how much it is helpful for marketing the products or services? We

can see that the purpose of developing Facebook was to connect with

the friends (Mezrich, Chamberlain & Publishing 2009); Twitter came

from a brainstorming session by its founder Evan Williams (Johnson

2009); neither was created as a result of deep understanding of

social network theories. In the age of online world it is very easy

to collect and analyze different behavioral data from different

41 | P a g e

community users very easily. Online businesses can now easily test

their different methods and techniques of their marketing easily

through the use of internet of some social media. This is the most

suitable and cheapest opportunity for testing different marketing

tools used by different retailers. For example, Amazon has become

the largest online social science ‘laboratory’ as a result of

testing many models of consumer purchase behavior (Contractor 2009).

As Chris Anderson announced, online data deluge will make theories

obsolete (Anderson 2008). Firstly, beside this opportunity, still

different theories of marketing can’t explain the effectiveness of

different social network marketing tools used by the business.

Secondly, a proper theoretical framework can help an organizations

especially giant retailers like Argos to develop their different and

effective social network marketing (Vise and Malseed 2006). Thirdly,

different technological dominance over the life of the consumers can

be easily avoided with the help of technology.

Asatryan and Oh (2008) designed a research paper to comprehend about

the formal Communication process. In the research paper he quoted

what the reason is for aggravating the prior visitors to offer for

oral outcomes for different queries. In some situation some Guests

or consumers have an optimistic approach to the services with the

Companies. And this thing can be revealed when we notice to use such

possessive words from their talking. Consequently someone can think

42 | P a g e

that a trustworthy customer may show an optimistic response to other

persons, operating their pessimistic response to the authority’s

body of a company (Mattila 2001).

From the judgment of Pierce, Kostova, and Dirks (2003), the

aspiration from Customers to manage these sort of communication can

bring an outcome in the manner of efficiency, Inherent enjoyment,

outside contentment in supplying these opinion to other people.

The media of the community are reliant on the telecasting different

user’s program to encourage them. According to (Emerson 1976) it

deals with the community communication that emerged from analysis of

sociology that reveals the replacement in the connection with

different persons and tiny groups in the society. This analysis

basically develop opportunity-expense table and relationship and

contrast of different options to state what are the procedure that a

people can follow to interact with other people, in which way they

build up a relations and ties, and the way to develop societies by

conversations and interactions with feedback (Homans 1958). The

analysis refers that and individual can connect in communications

they seek awarding & keep away from the communications where it is

necessary to bear cumbersome and rising expenses. Through describing

differently Community communications is developed on every operating

people’s personal judgment for Opportunity-expense of assisting in

43 | P a g e

Community communication. They convey with others reliant on mutual

performances from different interactions parties (Emerson 1976).

This analysis was prior the theory was possibly the most perfectly

shortened by Homans (1958, p. 606) when he quoted:

The communications in the community is the transfer of products,

different substances rather non-substances or invisible things like

the indications of recognition or status. People who want a great

deal to other personnel endeavor to have also more from such persons

, and people who have more from other persons lying in strain to

provide a great deal such persons. In the following we can be better

understood about the reason people connect with communal interaction

considered as optimistic 1. Anticipated opportunity in goodwill and

induce other people; 2. A predictable reciprocity from the responds

of other people; 3. Humanity; & 4. Straight Compensation or

recognition.

Though far more research is needed to test the validity of such

groupings, segmenting users as to their exchange behaviors has a

certain level of face-value validity. Given such a hierarchy of

users based on their active exchanges, firms attempting to leverage

social media to their advantage should attempt to engage consumers

of all four segments. For entertainers, operation is to primary

select a précised communal medium they employ, which data are

44 | P a g e

requiring, & after all tray to develop it connecting, to the

endeavor to do well and the arrangement of substances are pertinent.

This technique and the component supposed to be effective for users

also. By the way the intentions of users would be eased from the

market people through making easier of procedures of connecting

components (e.g., Retweet and Facebook forward links) and accepting

recognition and reward for expected communication or manner.

Recently a solitude court case in opposition to Facebook overlooked

emphasizes subsequent coated familiarity portions of communal

saturation at the time of revealing someone’s data (Gaudin 2010).

Facebook’s Open Graph permitted a person to “like” or “comment “on

several components or activities in webpage (Zukerberg 2010).

Businesses may look opportunities to move forward of that tendency

of giving comments to their internet pages or websites Communal

saturation technique. Alike to Communal communication Analysis,

communal saturation technique deals with what is the way a person

communicate develop relations (Altman and Taylor 1973).Using an

analogy of peeling off the layers in an onion, one must disclose him

or herself through the continuing process of exposing one’s inner

self and identity. It comes from people, noticeable, and external

data, like sex, likings in Dresses, customs & traditions; gradually,

as communication develop someone should inaugurate to distribute

approaches, at may be in the warmth layer, he/she should reveals

45 | P a g e

their objectives, aspiration and enthusiasms, and trusts (Altman,

Vinsel and Brown 1981).

2.4 Social media & Social penetration theory

The communication or social exchange theory perceives that the human

beings make decisions depending on the imputed benefits and costs.

People are considered as rational and they react in a way which is

more supportive towards the attainment of benefits in a

comparatively lower cost. In rational choice theory it is presumed

that a person will leave the relationships if she things that the

costs is higher than that of the benefits of anything. Aliening with

this rational choice theory the social penetration theory

illustrates how human exchange forms relationships (Altman and

Taylor 1973). The communication theory emphasizes on the

cumulative picture of the society, organization etc as a whole

regarding behavior where as the penetration theory suggests separate

individual behavioral pattern.

People are more disclosed through the self-disclosure. The self-

disclosure is more perfectly done through the social exchange

theory. It digs into the people and discloses him or herself through

a ongoing exposing one’s internal image and identity. One will not

expose his or her goals, visions, objectives, beliefs, ambitions

within one day. He or she will do it in a gradual manner. This

46 | P a g e

continuous flow of information and feelings sharing will start with

the beginning of relations. The depth and the intensity of the inner

image will be more visual with the long term trustworthy

relationships. The relationships begin with public, visible, and

superficial information, such as gender, clothing preferences, and

ethnicity; slowly, as the relationship progresses, one starts to

share feelings. (Altman, Vinsel and Brown 1981).

The depth of the relationships can be identified form the frequency

of the communication and the mode there of. This depth can be easily

measured and tracked online from various social communication media.

Among all the information some may by default is already disclosed

and known to all. Some information may be private or semi-private

and thus confidential. So, a cautious approach is required in

dealing with the information provided and acquired in the social

media. A recent privacy lawsuit against Facebook highlighted the

importance of following the layered intimacy levels of social

penetration when disclosing one's information (Gaudin 2010).

2.5 Conclusion

The sun moves, weather changes. With the globalization options come

to people to justify and verify what the other parts of the world is

enjoying. So, the one undivided business world has changed the taste

and demand and the technological advancement supported it. On the

47 | P a g e

other hand, symmetric information flow and the perfect competition

brought forward a dramatic change in the mode of marketing and

promotion (Donath J, Boyd D (2004). To respond to the changing and

diverse demands and tastes of the people the companies are not out

of challenges. Creating new markets in line with the existing ones

and developing and holding new and existing products and services

have make these challenges more challenging. Tension is in media

selection and content confirmation. In addition, to increase the

wealth and profit of the shareholders through fulfilling the

objectives specified the companies have to respond to issues such as

timing, environmental circumstances, sustain existing customers etc

(Weber L (2009). Argos is one of the organizations which is facing

these challenges of marketing through social networks. Throughout

this literature review the case study of Argos has been kept in mind

to understand, illustrate and analyze the effectiveness of social

network marketing. All through the following parts of this study we

will continue to depict and emphasize on the ins and outs of social

network marketing in the context of UK consumer market in light with

the case study of Argos.

48 | P a g e

Chapter 3.0

Research Methodology

49 | P a g e

3.1 Introduction

In the Chapter of research methodology it has to be formulated the

précised procedures to explore the research. Therefore to make a

spontaneous research on a particular subject the analyzer needs to

have the relevant, perfect and the applicable information which will

make the research more accessible to the expected users.

3.2 Research purpose

An Effective research can resolve different sort of queries that an

organization can face. About the research purpose Babbie said that

to do a research on a specific research it has 3 primary objectives

as like: explanatory, descriptive and exploratory.

Depending on the analysis queries and the problems that has been

referred prior in this dissertation, this form of analysis can be

the form of fundamental descriptive research. That sort of analysis

can be said as exploratory research also as there is just little

researches have been completed based on the interaction of marketing

through the communal medium. This research is descriptive research

because it will help to describe the characteristics of the social

network users. It will also describe the way by which different

50 | P a g e

online social network group help to advertise for retail business

and how it can influence the buyer to take their purchase decision.

3.3 Research approach

Literally the techniques or approaches can be parted into 2

individual core techniques which are qualitative and quantitative

techniques. The analysis techniques may be depended on numeric

explanation or vivid alphabetically illustrated information. The

objective of this dissertation paper is showing off the way of

keeping effect on the promotional interaction through communal

communication of Agros. Consequently it has been supposed to use the

qualitative or alphabetically decorated information technique this

form of analysis technique was previously corrected through popper

arrangement of the queries of analysis that focuses on the

difficulty about the promotional interaction of the organization and

the participation of latest occurrence of social medium. Information

which was utilized not dependent on the quantitative information,

and rather based on much segment-defined information that was

accumulated by concentrating to little groups of people who were

operating with this occurrence

3.4 Strategic Approach of Research

Generally the approach for the analysis can be parted or

distinguished in to five core techniques which are Analysis of a

51 | P a g e

related Story through practical or existing company’s information,

Judgment of Public Records, Experimentation, Inspection, historical

records. According to Yin (2009) a perfect procedure for an analysis

must be selected based on the under referred 3 criterion

• Sort or form of the problems of analysis required

• The measurement of the operation the analyzer may have based on

the practical or real behavioral actions.

• The peak of focal point of modern as opposite to the past

occurrences.

Regarding the research questions posed in this dissertation, a case

study research strategy is favorable to choose. Implications for a

case study research strategy are that the investigator of the

research has low control over the behavioral events. The researcher

has the position of an interviewer and observer who does not

influence actions or behavior. The case study also focuses on

contemporary events, which is given by the topic of the thesis. The

case study combines two different types of arguments. On the one

hand, it relies on direct observation of the events researched and,

on the other, there is proof by interviews of parties involved in

the topic.

52 | P a g e

3.5 Identification of Samples

In this research the sample will be taken based on convenience

sampling. This will be the most useful sampling technique because

the participant of this research will be selected from the people

who come to Argos for their shopping. It is also known as grab

sampling or opportunity sampling. About 200 participants will be

selected for filling up the designed questionnaire and criteria for

participating in the survey of the people who are the member of at

least any one or more online social network. Here, in this survey

the respondents who filled up the questionnaire are counted as a

respondent as everyone did not fill up. It was intentional to have

one equal halves of the respondents from male and the other halves

from female. The survey mainly depicts that the majority of the

respondents are the customer of Argos between the age of 26-35 and

they knew about Argos from more than one source.

3.6 Systems of Data Compilation

In this research data will be collected mainly from primary sources.

Among the sample participant of the research a questionnaire will be

given requiring answering some preprinted question. Based on that

answer the primary data will be collected.

53 | P a g e

During this research some secondary data will also be required from

some published books or Journals which is enlisted in the references

and bibliography section in the later part of this dissertation.

3.7 Analysis of Data

The technique of investigation of information includes three

different steps: lessening of Data, Showing off of Data and taking

the ending. The first one is formulated or designed for the

organization, disposal and the concentration. This part is the

pioneer for the other following parts and eases for making up the

endings at last. The next section is the showing off the information

which designs the lessened data in such a way that a investigator

can capable to draw up the endings section. At the last section or

the ending part the investigator ways to notes, usual ways and

informal flows

3.8 Parameters & unit of analysis

Though a survey will be conducted for collecting primary data for

this dissertation but it is actually a case study. The main strategy

of this case study is particularly concentrated on Argos. Which

social network is used for marketing by Argos? How much social

network influence the purchasing decision of customers. Study will

also expanded to the extent that which social network is used most

54 | P a g e

by the customer and how many social network’s members they are and

how much time they spend on that communities.

Again for conducting survey the population will be considered as the

customers who use various social networks and are member of one or

more social network communities come directly in Argos outlet for

shopping. Sample has been taken from the customer of Argos who

physically shops in Argos. At best 200 participants have been taken

and 100 of them are male and 100 of them are female. Participants

are considered when they have participated on the survey, not all

the person to whom invitation of participating has been given.

Collected data form survey will be summarized and will be presented

through different graphs or charts with the help Microsoft excel.

3.10 Restrictions of the Study

To conduct the research it has to maintain some rules and there may

be some boundaries in analysis. The restrictions are given as below:

The analysis has been run depending on the Secondary data based

on interviews and personal judgments and have been taken from

the different individual form Argos related to the techniques

of the communal network communications.

Owing to restriction of time from the individual of Argos we

had the limited information

55 | P a g e

In the management it has many secret promotional technique or

ideas which have not been provided

To take the encryption of management about revealing some

information something may not be provided.

3.11 Conclusion

This portion of the research paper will disclose and enlisted out

the data that will be used in the research paper to supply a

complete pack of answers for the thesis queries that has been prior

posed. It basically parades what sorts of required information and

the techniques of composing those along with the procedures of

practicing this information to resolve the thesis queries. Besides a

overall viewpoint of the information study will be supplied.

56 | P a g e

Chapter 4.0

Analysis and Findings

57 | P a g e

4.1 Introduction

Before presenting the results from the survey we’ll briefly

introduce some information about Argos’ use of social networks.

Social Media Marketing makes use of social media sites to raise

visibility on the Internet and to promote products and services.

Social media sites are useful for building social (and business)

networks, and for exchanging ideas and knowledge.

Reaching to £1.9 billion of multichannel sales which consists 43% of

Argos’ sales in last financial year makes the justification of its

investment in services. To derive these sales across multichannel

Argos used all the following-

Reserve and collect system where Argos provided the customers with

valid and latest information about availability of items and

executing the services well.

Through catalogues Argos executed sales both online and in-store

which laid a great opportunity to get its product in front of

customers even if the products are in research phase.

Making a wide range of products available online.

58 | P a g e

Argos provided in store ordering facilities side by side online

ordering.

Though an iPhone app is on the way Argos only has a text and

reserve service for mobile users.

Argos’ employees say that we generate an enormous amount of customer

data every day. But now the unification of data from digital world

and correlating it with traditional offline tactics for real time

adjustments is particularly assigned to chief marketing officers to

gain control over efficiency of promotional campaigns.

4.2 Why Argos uses Social media network?

The reason can be summarized into five points.

1. To reach a large number of people.

2. To increase the traffic in its websites through the use of blogs

and social and business networking sites.

3. To complement other marketing strategies.

4. To build credibility through interaction and

5. To select the target group for specific specialized advertising.

59 | P a g e

4.3 How Argos used social media techniques for its advantage?

Argos reviewed the following checklist to assess whether it is ready

to use the social media marketing techniques at the very beginning.

1. Assessed the prioritized business and marketing needs.

2. Assessed whether the social media is appropriate for its business

and target customers.

3. Identified the goals Argos is trying to accomplish by engaging in

social media.

4. Assessed the social media marketing fits with other marketing and

other strategies.

5. Assessed whether Argos has any existing plan to guide the social

media networking.

6. Implemented the plan of using social media.

4.4 Internet marketing strategies

Among a range of internet marketing strategies the following few is

specifically followed by Argos in social media optimization.

1. Search engine optimization

2. Affiliate marketing

60 | P a g e

3. Online display advertising

4.5 Trends and what’s significant in 2013

So much of what’s discussed daily in digital marketing is useful or

interesting, but just noise. To create additional leads and sales

and strengthening brands it is the marketing activity where the

investment should have to flow to catch the train of ever changing

trend. Some focal point deviating from the so called Ecommerce

technologies and marketing techniques are stated below which are

very important for Argos to keep in mind to cope with the

competitive, changing trends of markets.

1. Mobile marketing

2. Content marketing

3. Branded niche or vertical communities

4. Conversion rate optimization

5. Increased use of marketing automation

6. Move from high volume data to small data

7. Contextual targeting through ad networks

8. Search personalization

4.6 True value of social media and Argos’ mistake

Argos made mistakes many times over the social media due to proper

and prompt integration system among the departments and faced the

61 | P a g e

burden of rumor and had an earful of abuses. Once it made an

erroneous status in Twitter and did not respond it quickly through

that media seeking apologize due to lack of spontaneous

communication systems and immediate flagging of red spots. These

types of activities hamper the reputation and drainage the

confidence from the institution. Facing the problems of like nature

Argos learnt and now it try to respond promptly and interactively

with its customers to provide the real value adding services.

4.7 The essential tools for the understanding online marketplace

Some tools are essentially important for the marketers of which some

are free and some are costly. The tools are-

1. Keep eye on the latest development in the industry

2. Manage social media updates

3. Find out influencers

4. Have insights about customer search behavior

5. Competitor site benchmarking

6. On-page backlink analysis

7. Off-page backlink analysis

8. Keeping insights on overall online marketing effectiveness

9. Use predictive marketing

10. Be proactive

11. Retention is more cheaper than acquisition

62 | P a g e

4.8 The online reality and use of social media in the UK retailers

Just before 10 years only a very few people were used to purchase

online while in the last decade the UK has turned into one of the

most developed online retail markets in the world and Argos is a

very important contributor there. The online purchasers, which

include a bulk from middle class of people, are now used to buy the

regular, weekly, and occasional higher value necessities through

online price comparison sites and social media. But the online

retail picture has altered and multi-channel retailing is gaining

the preference. Due to this transformation and to respond to the

changing days the role of social media has not reduced in importance

and increasing continuously in scope creating new opportunities for

retailers.

4.9 Analysis based on sample survey

In this sec we will present the main findings from the survey. Here,

in this survey the respondents who filled up the questionnaire are

counted as a respondent as everyone did not fill up. It was

intentional to have one equal halves of the respondents from male

and the other halves from female. The survey mainly depicts that the

majority of the respondents are the customer of Argos between the

age of 26-35 and they knew about Argos from more than one source.

Among the respondents 65% use the Facebook and 61% of the

63 | P a g e

respondents spend on an average 3-4 hours per day on internet. 37%

of the respondents spend about 11-30 minutes on social media sites

each session and 79% of the total respondents are connected on an

average with 6-15 communities over the internet and social media

sites.

1. Your gender?

a) Male

b) Female

Option Male

Femal

e Total

Percent

age 50% 50% 100%

64 | P a g e

50%50%Male Female

In selecting the respondents arbitrary approach is used but it was

kept in mind to have 50% male and 50% female. The people who did not

respond are excluded and only 200 respondents divided into 2 equal

halves as male and female is considered here.

2. Your age?

a) 18-25

b) 26-35

c) Above 35

Option 18-25 26-35 Above Total

65 | P a g e

35

Percenta

ge30% 61% 9% 100%

18-2530%

26-3561%

Above 359%

Though the products available in Argos are not only for the adults

and family needs, a significant part of the revenue thereof comes

from the goods for children. Still in selecting the sample

respondent the age limit is taken from 18 to above 35 as the

ultimate decision maker is the senior or adult members of the

family. Among 200 respondents 30% is between the ages of 18-25, 61%

is between 26-35 and the rest is above 35 years.

66 | P a g e

3. Which Social network generally you got Argos’s advertisement

from?

a) Facebook

b) Twitter

c) MySpace

d) Orkut

e) Others

OptionFaceboo

k

Twitt

erMySpace Orkut

Other

sTotal

Percentag

e38% 24% 30% 5% 13% 100%

Facebook35%

Twitter22%

MySpace27%

Orkut5%

Others12%

67 | P a g e

Among the social networking sites Facebook is thought is more

dominant in case of having participants. But Argos keeps itself

alive in almost all of the known social networking sites. The survey

also depicts the same where the Facebook and MySpace are relatively

closer in containing the advertisements of Argos’ products and

activities. 38% of the sample respondents got Argos’ advertisement

over Facebook whereas 32% got from MySpace. Among the other sites

Twitter, having 19% respondences, is in advance than that of Orkut,

having 3% and other sites, having 8%.

4. Which social network you normally use?

a) Facebook

b) Twitter

c) MySpace

d) Orkut

e) Others

OptionFacebo

ok

Twit

ter

MySpac

e

Orku

t

Othe

rs

Tota

l

68 | P a g e

Percent

age65% 23% 4% 6% 2% 100%

Facebook38%

Twitter19%

MySpace32%

Orkut3%

Others8%

The percentage of the respondents shows how popular the Facebook is

and the number of respondents who use it is 130 among 200. It is 65%

of the total respondent. 23% use Twitter, 4% use MySpace, 6% use

Orkut and the rest 2% use other social media like Pinterest,

different blogging sites etc. This statistics show us how far the

scope of social media marketing has expanded over time and with the

increase of ease in the access to the internet and related

technology.

Among the results of the questions in serial number 3 and 4 there

are mainly two peculiarities and they are (i) the user of Facebook

constitutes 65% of the respondents where as only 38% got Argos’

69 | P a g e

advertisement from that social networking site and (ii) 4% of the

respondents use MySpace as social network but 20% of them got

Argos’ advertisement through MySpace. For the peculiarities one the

probable reasons may include the followings-

the mass population use the Facebook to fulfill their social

media need which increases the percentage of users but all of them

are not eager to have commercial information from Facebook due to

the consciousness of personal information disclosure or rather they

shop directly from Argos having information directly from friends,

families and other sources etc. At September 2012 Facebook had

about 1 billion active users which also indicates and supports the

increased percentage of 65% users whereas the growing base of

Twitter having 500 million of active users in 2012 draining the

strength of the user base of Facebook.

For peculiarity two we may identify that though until early 2008

from the establishment in 2003, MySpace was the most visited social

networking site in the world in April 2008, Myspace was overtaken by

Facebook in number of visitors. Still in June 2012 Myspace had a

number of active users consisting of 25 million persons. Here, we

may conclude the shift of interest from Myspace to Facebook has

reduced the number of active users but who are remaining with

Myspace rely on it and have a corner of softness which encourage

them to have information about Argos’ products through Myspace

70 | P a g e

directly or indirectly. Twitter and Orkut gives aliened results

between the number of users and number of Argos’ advertisement

getters. At last, the other social media also provide a

significant portion of Argos’ advertisements.

5. How much time (on average) do you spend on your favorite social

networking site(s) per session?

a) Less than 5 minutes

b) 5-10 minutes

c) 11-30 minutes

d) 30-60 minutes

More

Option <5 5-10 11-30 30< more Total

Percenta

ge 3% 21% 37% 26% 13% 100%

71 | P a g e

<53% 5-10

21%

11-3037%

30<26%

More13%

It is found from the survey that people use the social media sites

more than once in a day. It is also found that they do not spend

much time every time they logon to the media. 3% of the respondents

stay online for about 5 minutes or less in each login, 21% lasted

for about 5-10 minutes, 37% continued for about 30-60 minutes and at

last but not the least 13% spend more than one hour in each login.

It is also expands the scope of social media marketing through

online.

6. Average hours spend in the internet?

a) Less than 2 hours

b) 3-4 hours

c) More than 4 hours

72 | P a g e

Option <2 3-4 4< Total

Percenta

ge23% 16% 61% 100%

23%

16%61%

<23-44<

Internet is the most progressive global communication medium for the

people and businesses now-a-days. The availability of technology and

internet has fueled the speed of spreading of internet and has

caused taken a substantial part of the time of people. Among the 200

respondents 23% spend less than 2 hours in internet every day and

16% spend on an average 3-4 hours daily and the respondents who

spend more than 4 hours on internet daily consists of 61%.

7. What kind of advertisement did you see?

a) TV

73 | P a g e

b) Newspaper

c) Internet

d) More than one of the above

Option TVNewspap

er

Inter

net

More

than

one

Tota

l

Percent

age5% 3% 24% 68% 100%

TV5%

Newspaper3%

Internet24%

More than one68%

Argos is present among the people in various ways to convert and

hold them to customer for a period of life long time. Among the

various media of mass communication 5% see the TV advertisement

where as 3% see newspaper and 24% see the internet advertisement and

74 | P a g e

at last and most importantly 68% found Argos in more than one media

indicated above. We see that Argos is present among people through

various communication media and our survey also supports it.

8. Do you shop at Argos?

a) Yes

b) No

Option Yes No Total

Percenta

ge 94% 6% 100%

Yes94%

No6%

The ultimate target of this survey is to analyze the use and

effectiveness of social media network by Argos and that is why the

sample selected mainly from the customers of Argos keeping in mind

75 | P a g e

whether they use and are influenced by the social media marketing.

Among the 200 respondents 94% shops at Argos and 6% don’t.

9. How do you know Argos?

a) Advertisement

b) Words of mouth

c) Others

Option Advertisement Words of mouth others Total

Percentage 52% 39% 9% 100%

52%39%

9%

Advertisement Words of mouth others

Argos publicizes itself in various ways like-TV, advertisement, word

of mouth, festoon, online media, social media, personal contact,

76 | P a g e

alien family etc. Among the 200 respondents 52% knew about Argos

through advertisement, 39% through words of mouth and the rest of 9%

through other sources.

10. Why do you shop at Argos?

a) It is product quality

b) They deliver swiftly

c) The choice of products is good

d) The price

OptionQuali

ty

deliv

ery

choice

pf

produc

ts

price Total

Percenta

ge48% 11% 17% 24% 100%

77 | P a g e

Quality48%

delivery11%

choice pf products17%

price24%

Among many reasons for shopping in Argos one significant reason is

its ease of shopping. Among the other reasons 48% of the respondents

shop in Argos for quality products where as 11% for swift delivery

as well as 17% attend at Argos for having good choice and the rest

24% for the price. The theoretical discussion depicts that Argos is

a catalogue merchant and it provides swift delivery of products.

There is a large variety of products also. But in real show Argos is

not out of the boundary of criticism of slow response and some other

problems.

11. How many communities/groups you are member of?

a) 1-5

b) 6-15

c) More than 15

Option 1-5 6-15 15< Total

78 | P a g e

Percenta

ge 16% 79% 5% 100%

1-516%

6-1579%

15<5%

The use of multi communication channels has increased in this age of

ever changing technology. There are various and diversified purposed

groups, communities, sites etc created for and by people having

different interests and needs. Among all the respondents 16% is

connected with 5 or less groups where as a significant portion which

is about 79% is connected through 6-15 groups or communities and the

rest of 5% is linked with more than 15 groups.

79 | P a g e

7.10 Conclusion

As the social media is more open the threats of being affected by

“malware” i.e. virus. The users must be aware enough to have

adequate web security system with multi-layered solutions.

Signatures, network intelligence, real-time scanning and the help of

specialized security companies can also be adapted. One single way

to reach to the customers is not the ideal way in the present

context rather a combination of multichannel response through

providing a technology based in-store remarkable quality service as

well as proper maintenance and real time response through social

media can excel the growth and brand publicity. If retailers can

harness multi-channel activity they will increase their

understanding of their customers and will improve conversion rates

and profitability

80 | P a g e

Chapter 5.0

Discussions

81 | P a g e

82 | P a g e

According to the findings only a small number of people usually seen

Argos advertisement in social network.

With the wide spread use of internet and ever growing variety in

technological advancements diversified systems of communication and

share of knowledge and information has been created. Social

networking sites on the internet are one of the media which is now

capable of holding the hands of billions in a socially connected

manner. Among the 200 selected samples one half is intentionally

taken from the female and the other half is taken from male. The

survey mainly depicts that the majority of the respondents are the

customer of Argos between the age of 26-35 and they knew about Argos

from more than one source. Among the respondents 65% use the

Facebook and 61% of the respondents spend on an average 3-4 hours

per day on internet. 37% of the respondents spend about 11-30

minutes on social media sites each session and 79% of the total

respondents are connected on an average with 6-15 communities over

the internet and social media sites. During this survey the age

limit of the respondents is taken between 18 to above 35 years as

these people are the ultimate decision makers about the purchases

even though the products may be for children or senior citizens.

Considering both male and female are important for Argos and both of

them have significant contribution in buying decisions in selecting

83 | P a g e

the respondents arbitrary approach is used but it was kept in mind

to have 50% male and 50% female.

Considering the amount of influences the adult members have on the

family and individual buying decisions here in this survey the age

limit is taken from 18 to above 35. Among 200 respondents 30% is

between the age of 18-25, 61% is between 26-35 and the rest is above

35 years.

The ultimate target of this survey is to analyze the use and

effectiveness of social media network by Argos and that is why the

sample selected mainly from the customers of Argos keeping in mind

whether they use and are influenced by the social media marketing.

Among the 200 respondents 94% shops at Argos and 6% don’t. The

utmost results of this survey also depict the significant influence

the social media have on the choice of products by people. The

survey also signifies the effectiveness of Argos’ presence on the

social media.

Among the various ways of advertising and publicizing like-TV,

advertisement, word of mouth, festoon, online media, social media,

personal contact, alien family etc each one has its contribution

towards the promotion of products and offers of Argos. Among the 200

respondents 52% knew about Argos through advertisement, 39% through

words of mouth and the rest of 9% through other sources. The social

84 | P a g e

media is one of the highly significant ways of transferring and

sharing word of mouth. It seems that Argos’ presence on social media

sites impacted the decision of the customers and made it possible to

hold the customers considering their life time value.

Among many reasons for shopping in Argos one significant reason is

its ease of shopping. High quality products, sensible pricing,

online ordering and payment systems, availability of shopping

centers, real time updates are some attractive spots to induce and

hold customers. Among the reasons 48% of the respondents shops in

Argos for quality products where as 11% for swift delivery as well

as 17% attend at Argos for having good choice and the rest 24% for

the price. The theoretical discussion depicts that Argos is a

catalogue merchant and it provides swift delivery of products. There

is a large variety of products also. But in real show Argos is not

out of the boundary of criticism of slow response and some other

problems.

Argos has a reputation as being a multichannel retailer. It just

does not appears to the public only through one media. Argos is

present among the people in various ways to convert and hold them as

customer for a period of life long time. Among the various media of

mass communication 5% see the TV advertisement where as 3% see

newspaper and 24% see the internet advertisement and at last and

85 | P a g e

most importantly 68% found Argos in more than one media indicated

above. We see that Argos is present among people through various

communication media and our survey also supports it. Argos shared

its advertisements through various social network sites also through

Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and various blogs etc.

Internet is the most progressive global communication medium for the

people and businesses now-a-days. The availability of technology and

internet has fueled the speed of spreading of internet and has

caused to take a substantial part of the time of people. Among the

200 respondents 23% spend less than 2 hours in internet every day

and 16% spend on an average 3-4 hours daily and the respondents who

spend more than 4 hours on internet daily consists of 61%. The more

hours one spends on internet the more he is exposed to the messages

by various sites. Argos is taking this facility to reach the offer

to the people directly through various social media sites.

The percentage of the respondents shows how popular the Facebook is

and the number of respondents who use it is 130 among 200. It is 65%

of the total respondent. 23% use Twitter, 4% use MySpace, 6% use

Orkut and the rest 2% use other social media like Pinterest,

different blogging sites etc. This statistics show us how far the

scope of social media marketing has expanded over time and with the

increase of ease in the access to the internet and related

86 | P a g e

technology.

Among the social networking sites Facebook is thought is more

dominant in case of having participants. But Argos keeps itself

alive in almost all of the known social networking sites. The survey

also depicts the same where the Facebook and MySpace are relatively

closer in containing the advertisements of Argos’ products and

activities. 38% of the sample respondents got Argos’ advertisement

over Facebook whereas 32% got from MySpace. Among the other sites

Twitter, having 19% despondences, is in advance than that of Orkut,

having 3% and other sites, having 8%.

It is found from the survey that people use the social media sites

more than once in a day. It is also found that they do not spend

much time every time they logon to the media. 3% of the respondents

stay online for about 5 minutes or less in each login, 21% lasted

for about 5-10 minutes, 37% continued for about 30-60 minutes and at

last but not the least 13% spend more than one hour in each login.

It is also expands the scope of social media marketing through

online. Relatively the young stars spend much time on the internet

and mainly on her or his favorite sites. A significant portion of

the sample spends more than 30-60 minutes which is the indication of

greater expandability of the online social media marketing.

87 | P a g e

People are eager to know the unknown and it is the unending thurst

for knowing others and new inventions. The use of multi

communication channels has increased in this age of ever changing

technology. There are various and diversified purposed groups,

communities, sites etc created for and by people having different

interests and needs. Among all the respondents 16% is connected with

5 or less groups where as a significant portion which is about 79%

is connected through 6-15 groups or communities and the rest of 5%

is linked with more than 15 groups. The results stimulate the

feelings of greater connection and diversification in communication.

It left the wide space for the players of social media marketing.

Social networking helps to develop relationship among users. Social

networking sites can construct a communication between individuals

that other media cannot. Networking or looking for new people is not

the main purpose of users of these sites. To communicate with people

with whom they are connected is the primary reason for using these

sites. Social networking sites are characterized by many technical

features. The backbone of these sites is constructed by visible

profiles of individuals. said that profiles are unique pages. And

individuals can type themselves into being. When anyone wants to

join in any site he or she has to fill up a form containing some

questions. The profile of that individual is generated by using

these answers. Information generally include about age, location,

88 | P a g e

interests, activities etc. The users can upload profile picture in

his/ her profile.

Due to availability of billions of active users of Face book,

MySpace, Orkut etc on online have made the social media marketing

very popular, interesting, interactive, personal, specific, and

social. So, the maintenance of absolute conversation at right time

at right place has become possible fulfilling the ultimate

objectives of the businesses creating a feeling of being honored,

informed, valued, and entertained. With the changes in the trends,

choices, likings of people over time the people like to be

approached with more attractive and differently creative techniques

of marketing in place of traditional marketing which would attract

the people few years before Borges.

Social network users have been increased significantly in recent

years. Argos use social network for advertising their products in

most of the community pages. For example Argos has developed a page

in Facebook which can be found in this link

(http://www.facebook.com/argos). The research shows that, as the

online users is increasing the revenue of Argos also increasing

which is found in their financial statement. A summary of those

findings is as follows-

89 | P a g e

Argos is the largest UK and Ireland based catalogue merchant with

about 740 stores. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a

constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Argos and Homebase have supported

several fundraisers for national Teenage Cancer Trust. In 2011

Argos’s Facebook and Twitter accounts helped to raise £80,000 for

this purpose. In 2012 Argos raised £4million. Argos did it to

encourage the staff and customers to participate in the fundraising

through increased awareness and fun using a great way named social

media.

Argos launched an event to receive photos of customers and staff

wearing fun and unusual wigs on its Facebook and Twitter pages.

Argos is present in social media sites through-Argos Facebook site,

Argos Twitter site, Argos YouTube site, Argos Pinterest, Homebase

Facebook site, Homebase Twitter site, Homebase YouTube site

Homebase Pinterest etc.

The constant evolution of the tools, techniques and contents is the

main reason for brand promoters’ preference of online media for

marketing. Consumers are searching social networks, review sites and

so on for reliable information, before deciding whether to buy a

given product or service or not.

The dimensions of using the social media in the companies are

increasing and already in wide use. Social network marketing is one

90 | P a g e

of the easily reachable, comparatively less expensive bases to boost

brand awareness and rich customer service to make the marketing

campaigns economic and efficient. More than 75% of the businesses

around the world are now active on the social networking media to

groom their effective marketing communications despite the media’s

significant volatility and advantages.

The developing countries like India, Brazil, and China are using the

social media more than that of the counter parts of developed

countries like UK, Canada, Germany and Australia in line with the

reduction in the cost of access to the internet and the required

devices. Among the other uses, the companies are using the social

media to establish corporate and social relationships and as well as

almost half of the organizations are using it for innovation in

their products and services and to recruit. It also describes some

other interesting information about social media. Such as, according

to a study, porn is the top activity on the web and one out of eight

U.S couple met through social media in last year. There are over 200

million blogs are available now and 54% of those bloggers

communicate daily. And the most interesting matter is that another

communication media radio takes 38 years to reach 50,000,000 users.

Television takes 13 years to reach to that number. Internet needs 4

years and iPod needs 3 years for the same result. Facebook is the

most popular media of social networking which can connect

91 | P a g e

100,000,000 users in only 9 months and iPhone can connect more than

1 billion users within the same time. It is clear that social

networking has become huge and it is expanded among every generation

people. According to a study, the fastest growing users on Facebook

are 55 to 65 year old females. Social networks are very easy to

access and for this reason the marketers are trying to capture the

market through these sites. A study states that 25% of search

results for the top twenty brands are linked to user generated

content and 34% of bloggers post opinions. Another interesting

matter is that social media has made peer recommendation successful

and it has brought the peer recommendation and interaction to a new

level. Social media revolution video tells us that users are more

concerned for how social graph ranks products than how Google ranks.

14% of users trust advertisement to collect information and 78%

users trust the peer recommendations through social networks. It

states that traditional advertising media is not as successful as

social media. Social networking is comparatively a new media and

some companies are still tentative to jump into one. It is clear to

us that social media marketing has become a complete new field for

marketing their products and services. Over 1,500,000 substances are

shared daily through Facebook and the marketers know the

potentiality for marketing their products and businesses. But it is

a matter of question that how this marketing can be done with

92 | P a g e

success. A global study has been undertaken over 100 largest

companies and 79% of which use facebook, twitter, youtube and some

other corporate blogs to communicate information about their

products and services with consumers. A study over top 100 U.S

companies reveals that 86% of those use at least one social

networking media for their marketing. The most popular social

networking media is twitter. It is used by 65% of global 100

companies. 33% of global companies use corporate blogs, 50% use

youtube and 54% have facebook fan pages for their products and

services. The study also revealed that those companies have high

social networking activity levels. It showed that 82% of those

tweeted in the last week and at a high average of 27 tweets per

week. Around 59% of those companies posted on their facebook fan

pages with an average 3.6 posts. And 68% of companies posted on

youtube their videos in the past month with an average 10 videos.

The companies also respond to user groups. 43% of U.S. companies

respond to user’s tweets and 41% retweet their comments. This

creates a dialogue between a company and consumers. To give special

focus on some parts, those companies maintain multiple accounts.

Such as AT&T has some twitter accounts called ATTNews, ATTJobs,

ATTDeals etc. The major companies which have facebook fan pages, the

average number of fans are in the tens of thousands compared to a

couple thousand for twitter. It shows that people want to connect

93 | P a g e

with companies on facebook. The fan pages of facebook permit people

to give “like” and post their comments about the products and

services. Multiple fan pages are maintained by larger companies

either for their products or for their different divisions. Video

channel pages subscriptions are allowed on youtube. Users can also

leave their comments on those videos. According to a study, on an

average there are 39,000 views per video channel. Those videos vary

from information based to entertainment based.

The use of social media is becoming progressively more significant

in the businesses of experiential nature such as hospitality and

tourism as there is intangibility and low level of technological

barriers for the average travelers. Among the two significant roles

of the mass social media first one resembles the oldest form of one-

to-one decisional communication regarding anything and the second

one is acting as the disseminator, storage and retrieval of the

information related to various real life situations and necessities.

The speed and the modification of the information and sometimes

rumors depend on the structure of the network and the individual

mentality of the actors on the network.

Due to the advancement in technologies related to information

systems such as open source of information, cellular phones, low-

cost internet access today’s social media communication increased

94 | P a g e

and advanced. Especially, social media has given consumers the

possibility to create and share information, and that is, to a large

extent, what they are doing.

95 | P a g e

Chapter 6.0

Conclusion & recommendations

96 | P a g e

6.1 Conclusion

Social networks are defined as online communities of people who

usually share their common interest, opinion, ideas and activities.

Just before 10 years only a very few people were used to purchase

online while in the last decade the UK has turned into one of the

most developed online retail markets in the world and Argos is a

very important contributor there. The online purchasers, which

include a bulk from middle class of people, are now used to buy the

regular, weekly, and occasional higher value necessities through

online price comparison sites and social media. But the online

retail picture has altered and multi-channel retailing is gaining

the preference. Finally it is said that for getting success in

retail business it is very important not to solely depending on the

online social network marketing. Though recent trends in market

mechanism good social network marketing can help to boost in retail

market but at the same to get success in the market and to retain

long term customer relationship a good combination of social network

marketing and other traditional marketing must be developed by a

retailer like Argos. Social media can be referred to as consumer

generated media. It creates value by blending technology and social

interaction. Information, news and other data are obtained through

97 | P a g e

electronic and print media. There are many industrial or traditional

media available to generate information. Such as newspaper,

magazines, television, film, radio. Social media are popular and can

be differentiated from these media because they are comparatively

cheap and easily accessible to anyone. Traditional media need

significant resources compared to social media for publicizing their

information. Both traditional and social media has a common

characteristic which is they can easily reach to audiences.

Technology has a tremendous impact on changing the retail business.

Although the rate of growth for internet and other electronic media

is very impressive, maximum retailing business in UK still happen in

shops. Technology has most important impact on the shape of high

street and day by day it is becoming more influential. Except some

structural changes that have been developed by using different

information available, there are some factors for social media.

These factors are very helpful to determine the success or failure

of retail business. Though many people think the social networking

is just spending of lot of money and time doing nothing still they

should have to understand that social network is a place as it is an

activity and is a must in today’s technology based complex, dynamic

markets. Retailers are increasingly enhancing the in-store

experience through interactive technologies. It is also highly

suggested and expected with the experienced expert opinion that

98 | P a g e

businesses must be involved with the social networking sites and

media for various reasons. The social networks serves as your home

on the web as you can post the pictures, messages, mails in it for

your friends, family, and all other related.

The networks are good for family and friends as these networks help

the family and friends to keep in touch at the busy and separated

time. Planning for get-togethers, reunion, suggestions from remote

dear ones in family matters is also possible. MyFamily.com is

specifically designed to fulfill these purposes. Online social

networks are good for businesses as these networks help the

businesses and the people of the society to maintain relationships

which are of crucial interest. For example LinkedIn is designed for

the businesses to stay linked. These networks are also the heart of

“social media marketing” through blogs, widgets and other sites. The

social networks are good for having fun as they provide a base and

huge collection of entertaining components such as Facebook provides

gaming facilities, Flixster provides movies, Last.FM provides music

and FanIQ helps to explore you in sports world. To stay connected

with your family and friends, to share your knowledge and favorite

quotes the social networks can be an excellent choice to you. Social

networks are defined as online communities of people who usually

share their common interest, opinion, ideas and activities. Just

before 10 years only a very few people were used to purchase online

99 | P a g e

while in the last decade the UK has turned into one of the most

developed online retail markets in the world and Argos is a very

important contributor there. The online purchasers, which include a

bulk from middle class of people, are now used to buy the regular,

weekly, and occasional higher value necessities through online price

comparison sites and social media. But the online retail picture has

altered and multi-channel retailing is gaining the preference.

Finally it is said that for getting success in retail business it is

very important not to solely depending on the online social network

marketing. Though recent trends in market mechanism good social

network marketing can help to boost in retail market but at the same

to get success in the market and to retain long term customer

relationship a good combination of social network marketing and

other traditional marketing must be developed by a retailer like

Argos.

6.2 Recommendations

The digital content is an fruitful tool to the retailers to stand

out from the crowd and keep customers interested. Social networks

can serve the host place for marketing camps for specific products.

For example, a musician might set up a profile on Last.FM as well as

MySpace, while a movie might be best promoted through Flixster in

100 | P a g e

addition to Facebook. This opportunity allows the marketing to go

viral and pick up a “grassroots effort” providing mutual interaction

between the customers and businesses.

From the research findings and analysis finally following

recommendations has been suggest for a retailing business like

Argos. These are followings-

1. A retail business should never underestimate the knowledge of

customers and be aware of the rise of informed customers and

their social demands.

2. A different marketing policy can be developed based on the

nature of the customer in retail business. Nature of the

customer vary because some customer chose to make a long term

relationship in case of shopping their daily needs and some

customer always like switch in case of buying their daily

necessary products or services.

3. Should be very careful in using social network marketing in

case of very sensitive products like baby foods or products or

services subject to religious sensitiveness.

4. Be cautious about the switchers and at the same time a value

or priority based social marketing policy can help well.

5. Be aware about where to promote offers and give incentives

101 | P a g e

6. Leverage the strength of targeted campaigns linked with

friends’ networks to drive the power of social media. Finally,

7. Location is also a factor which needs to be considered before

depending on social network marketing which helps the customer

to assess the ability of the retailers to swift delivery of

the products.

102 | P a g e

References and bibliography:

Altman, I. & Taylor, D. 1973. Social Penetration: The

Development of Interpersonal Relationships. New York: Holt,

Rinehart and Winston.

Altman, I., Vinsel, A. and Brown, B. 1981. Dialectic

conceptions in social psychology: An application to social

penetration and privacy regulation. Advances in Experimental

Social Psychology, 14(1), 107-60.

Andersen, M. M., & Poulfelt, F. (2006). Discount business

strategy. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Anderson, C. 2008. The end of theory: The data deluge makes

the scientific Method obsolete. Wired Magazine, 16(7), 16-

07.

Asatryan, V. and Oh, H. 2008. Psychological ownership

theory: An exploratory application in the restaurant

industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 32 (3),

363.

Babbie, E., 2009. The Practice of Social Research, 12th ed.,

Wadsworth Publishing.

103 | P a g e

Borgatti, S., Everett, M. and Freeman, L. 1992. Ucinet X:

Network Analysis Software. Columbia, SC: Analytic

Technologies.

Borges B (2009). Marketing 2.0. Wheat mark, pp. 45-63.

Brake, S., 2009. The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools and

Strategies for Business Success, Wiley.

Brennan, Chan, Hine, Esslemont, 1996. Improving the Accuracy

of Recall Data: A Test of Two Procedures, Marketing

Bulletin.

Brinlee D (2007). Does Internet Advertising Work? (Online)

Available from: http://www.askdeb.com/internet/advertising.

[Accessed on 05/12/2012]

Brown, 2007. The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing:

Pay per Click Advertisement, Atlantic Publishing.

Chaffey and Smith, 2008. Six categories of e-communications

tools or media channels, Prentice Hall/ Financial Times.

Chaffey, D. (2003). Internet Marketing, Strategy,

Implementation and Practise. 2nd edition, Pearson Education

Limited, pp. 115-186.

104 | P a g e

Chaffey, D., & PR, S. (2008). eMarketing eXcellence:

Planning and optimising your digital marketing (3rd ed.).

Oxford: Taylor & Francis.

Chaffey, D., 2009. Internet Marketing. 4th ed., Prentice

Hall/ Financial Times.

Contractor, N. 2009. The emergence of multidimensional

networks. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 14

(3), 743-7.

Crotts, J.C. 1999. Consumer decision making and prepurchase

information search, in Consumer Behavior in Travel and

Tourism, edited by A. Pizam and Y. Masfeld. New York: The

Haworth Hospitality Press, 149-68.

Dane, F. C., 2010. Evaluating Research: Methodology for

People Who Need to Read Research, Sage Publications.

Dellarocas, C. 2003. The digitization of word of mouth:

Promise and challenges of online feedback mechanisms.

Management Science, 49(10), 1407-1424.

Donath, J. Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection.

BT Technol. J., pp. 71-82

105 | P a g e

Duncan and Moriarty, 1998. A communication based marketing

model for managing relationships, American Marketing

Association.

Dwyer and Tanner, 2008. Business Marketing, 4th ed., McGraw

Hill Higher Education.

Dye, R., (McKinsey), 2000. The buzz on buzz, Harvard

Business Review.

Egan, J., 2007. Marketing Communications, Cengage Learning.

Emerson, R. 1976. Social exchange theory. Annual Review of

Sociology, 335-62.

Emrich, C., 2008. Multi-channel Communications und Marketing

Management, Gabler Verlag.100

Eric E (2008). 2008 Growth Puts Face book In Better Position

to Make Money. (online) Available from:

http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-

in-better-position-to-make-money. [Accessed on 15/12/2012]

Evans, D. 2008. Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day.

Indianapolis, IN: Sybex.

Evans, D., 2008. Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, John

Wiley & Sons.

106 | P a g e

Fill, C., 2005. Marketing communications engagement,

strategies and practice, 4th ed., Pearson Education.

Fox, S., 2009. E-Riches 2.0: Next-Generation Marketing

Strategies for Making Millions Online, AMACOM.

Gaudin, S. 2010. Facebook Slapped with Class-Action Privacy

Lawsuit. [online 8 July] Available at:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178993/Facebook_slap

ped_with_class_action_privacy_lawsuit [access 1 December,

2012].

Google 2012. The 1000 Most-Visited Sites on the Web.

[online, 1 October] Available at:

<http://www.google.com/adplanner/static/top1000/ [accessed 5

December, 2012].

Hairong and Leckenby, 2004. Internet advertising formats and

effectiveness, University of Michigan State and Austin

(Texas).

Hoffmann and Novak, 1996. A New Marketing Paradigm for

Electronic Commerce.

Homans, G. 1958. Social behavior as exchange. American

Journal of Sociology, 63(6), 597-606.

107 | P a g e

Hooley, G., F. Piercy, N., & Nicolaud, B. (2008). Marketing

strategy and competitive positioning (4th edition ed.).

Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Johnson, S. 2009. How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live,

Time. [online, 5 June, 2009] Available at: http://www. time.

com/time/printout/0, 8816 (1902604), 00 [accessed, 27

November, 2012].

Jowyang, J. 2010. Socialgraphics Help You to Understand Your

Customers: Slides and Webinar Recording. [online, January 1,

2012] Available at:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/category/socialgraphics/

[accessed: 9 December, 2012].

Kazienko, P. and Musial, K., 2007. Discovering

Multidimensional Social Communities in Web 2.0.: Proceedings

of The 3rd European Symposium on Nature-inspired Smart

Information Systems (26-27 November 2007, St Julians,

Malta).

Kazienko, P., Musial, K. & Kajdanowicz, T. 2011.

Multidimensional Social Network and Its Application to the

Social Recommender System, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man

and Cybernetics-Part A: Systems and Humans. In Press.

108 | P a g e

Kotler, Armstrong, Wong, Saunders, 2008. Principles of

Marketing, 5th ed. Pearson Education.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2009a). Marketing management (12

ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., & Setiawan, I. (2010). Marketing

3.0: From products to customers to the human spirit.

Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kumar, Aaker, Day, 2002. Essentials of Marketing Research,

2nd ed., Wiley.

Lacy, K. and Hernandez, M. (2009) Twitter Marketing for

Dummies. pp. 14-20

Lamb, Hair, McDaniel, 2009. The essentials of Marketing, 6th

ed., South-Western College Publishing.

McLuhan, M. 1995. Understanding Media: The Extensions of

Man. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Mezrich, B., Chamberlain, M. & Publishing, R. H. A. 2009.

The Accidental Billionaires. Harpswell, ME: Anchor.

Miles and Huberman, 1994. Qualitative data analysis, 2nd

ed., Sage Publications.

109 | P a g e

Mullin, R., 2002. Direct marketing: a step-by-step guide to

effective planning and targeting, Kogan Page.

Nash, E. L., 2000. Direct marketing: strategy, planning,

execution, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill Companies.

Nicole, K. (2007) Building a Brand through Social Networks.

(Online) Available from: http://mashable.com/ 2007/05/ 08/

brand-social-networks.

Parr, B. 2009. 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates.

[online, 12 March] Available at:

http://mashable.com/2009/04/10/extraordinary-twitter-

updates/ [accessed: 30 November, 2012].

Pelsmacker, Geuens, van den Bergh, 2007. Marketing

communications a European Perspective, 3rd ed., Pearson

Education.

Pepels, W., 2004. Marketing, 4th ed., Oldenbourg Verlag.

Perdue, R. R. 1993. External information search in marine

recreational fishing. Leisure Sciences, 15(3), 169-87.

Peterson and Wotruba, 1996. What is direct selling? The

Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, The

Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management.

110 | P a g e

Phillips, 2001. Online Public Relations, 1st ed., Kogan

Page.

Pierce, J., Kostova, T. & Dirks, K. 2003. The state of

psychological ownership: Integrating and extending a century

of research. Review of General Psychology, 7(1), 84-107.

Poels and Dewitte, 2006. How to capture the heart? Reviewing

20 years of emotion measurement in advertising, Ghent

University (Belgium).

Products Reach New Auditions and Sell More Stuff, 1st ed.,

Prentice Hall. 102

Punch, K., 2005. Introduction to social research:

quantitative and qualitative approaches, 2nd ed., Sage

Publications.

Ramos and Cota, 2009. Search Engine Marketing, 1st ed.,

McGraw-Hill.

Reichmayr, I. F., 2002. Unser tägliches Blog gib uns heute.

Ricadela, A. (2007). Fogeys Flock to Facebook, Business

Week. (Online) Available from:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/

tc2007085_051788.htm.

Saunders and Thornhill, 2007. Research methods for business

students, 4th ed., Prentice Hall/ Financial Times.

111 | P a g e

Schwarz, T., 2005. Permission Marketing: Nur erwünschte

Dialoge kommen an, 1st ed., Rights of publishing Schwarz T.

Scott, D. M (2009). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. John

Wiley & Sons Inc., pp. 135-150

Shapiro, A., 1999. The Control Revolution: How the Internet

is Putting Individuals in Charge and Changing the World We

Know, 1st ed., PublicAffairs.

Shih C (2009). The Facebook Era. Tapping online social

networks to build better products, reach new audiences and

selling more stuff. Prentice Hall Publication, pp. 85-128

Shih, C., 2009. The Facebook Era Tapping Online Social

Networks to Build Better

Shimp, T., 2007. Advertising Promotion and other aspects of

Integrated Marketing Communications, 8th ed., South-Western

College Publishing.

Smith and Taylor, 2004. Marketing communications an

integrated approach, 4th ed.,

Streiff, A., 2005. Wiki - Zusammenarbeit im Netz, 1st ed.,

Books on Demand GmbH.

Stroud D. (2007). Opinion piece: Falling in Love 2.0:

Relationship marketing for the Face book generation. Social

112 | P a g e

networking: An age-neutral commodity — Social networking

becomes a mature web application, pp. 105-165.

Swatschenko, P., 2005. Positionierung das erfolgreichste

Marketing auf unserem Planeten, 2nd ed., Gabel Verlag.

Thomas and Watson, 2002. Q-Sorting and MIS Research – A

Primer, Communications of the Association for Information

Systems.

Thompson, S.H (2002). Attitudes toward online shopping and

the internet. National university of Singapore, 21(4).

TrendsStream Limited. 2010. Global Web Index. [online, 1

March] Available at: http://globalwebindex.net/ [accessed:

29 November, 2012].

Unger and Fuchs, 2005. Management der

Marketingkommunikation, 3rd ed.,

Vise, D. & Malseed, M. 2006. The Google Story: Inside the

Hottest Business, Media, and Technology Success of Our Time.

Surrey, UK: Delta.

Wasserman, S. & Faust, K. 1994. Social Network Analysis.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

113 | P a g e

Wauch, K., 2008. Wikimanagement: Was Unternehmen von Social

Software und Web 2.0 lernen können, 1st ed., Oldenbourg

Verlag.

Weber, L. (2009). Marketing to the Social Web. Second

Edition. John Wiley and Sons, pp. 58-97.

Wild, Wild, Han, 2007. International Business, 4th ed.,

Prentice Hall.

Wright, J., 2005. BLOG Marketing The Revolutionary New Way

to Increase Sales, Build

Yin, R. K., 2003. Applications of case study research, 2nd

ed., Sage Publications.

114 | P a g e