Introduction
Social media seems to have established as a new distribution platform in the consumer market in recent years. Over a decade ago, catalogues at department stores, Internet Web pages, newspapers and TV and ads were the main channels of general corporate marketing. Still, now it is a difficult time to keep up with the ever-changing trend.
It is through the advent of social media that small and medium-sized businesses and private entrepreneurs have been able to enter the market on a small budget in the consumer market, which has long been dominated by large companies with capital power.
Social media has become a central platform in the commercial market since mobile devices’ network of communication and information sharing was naturally formed. Particularly, various mobile devices feature, such as iPads, Smart Phones, tablets, and Kindles, have led to the establishment of a more active network in line with the trend of young people; today who value pleasure (Lipsman, 2010), (Lee, et al., 2010). Also, it has allowed people to build a new relationship between businesses and consumers that is the most fundamental in the consumer market. It has increased interaction with potential consumers and increased intimacy with them. In other words, the influence of online networks on the company has been significant over the past few years. As such, social media has led to the spread of user-led technologies, social network blogs and media-sharing platforms over the past decade, enabling global communities, user-generated content, and consumer feedback. (Smith, 2009)
Therefore, this study explores what new consumer market characteristics are forming through social media and how they influence the customer in terms of purchasing goods in real markets.
The specific research question of this study is:
“Does Social Media influence Consumer Buying Behaviour?”
Background
Social Media
Today, more than 500 million people communicate through social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. With so many users, their sites are growing daily (Ostrow, 2010).
When social media first appeared, sharing photos and personal daily stories with close people was the main function of social media. Still, it has expanded to many different fields, including job hunting, product promotion, sales, purchasing, information sharing and socializing. As such, social networks greatly affect human behaviour patterns in their daily lives and play a major role in facilitating mutual communication.
The reason why consumers use social networks in their daily lives is because of the various emotional and practical benefits of personal and social contact with multiple people. People can build rapport and friendship through communication with relatives, co-workers, and friends. At the same time, their relationship with online users on various channels gives them benefits such as expanding knowledge and information and social support. Furthermore, many positive features, such as improved communication skills, convenient access to diverse data, and upgraded social networking systems, have emerged, leading to the ultimate change in business, society, and consumers. The Internet and the activation of virtual communities played a major role in this change.
Social Media Interactivity
In an information society where various information is competitive, consumer decisions are made, and products are evaluated. In this regard, social media has established a new channel, providing a venue for product information exchange through peer communication and promoting practical products (Kozinettes, 1999). Consumers easily find brands of goods they need, connect them, make reviews of brands and products, share their unique information with consumers online that marketers do not know about, and focus on product feedback, timing and number of purchases.
Social media has established a new way of building relationships between businesses and consumers, which are too important in the consumer market. It has facilitated more exchanges with potential consumers and increased their closeness. Also, a new way to find information about various services and products is a revolution in social media. That is, the impact of online networks on companies over the past few years has been significant.
Consumer buyer behaviour
As the use of social media increases and many changes have occurred in the purchasing behaviour of consumers, companies are targeting consumers by establishing new marketing strategies using social media. The consumer-making process is called the process of purchasing actual products after consumers are determined to buy products based on certain needs, researching them through various search routes, and buying products.
Consumer behaviour model
The EBM model (Engel et al., 1990) was adopted to confirm the relevance of classical models in social media use. As the most fundamental model to study the consumer decision process, it consists of five stages: need recognition, information retrieval, alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation.
Stage 0 – need recognition
In the buyer’s decision-making process, need recognition is the first step which allows consumers to recognize the difference between the current state and the desired state. Examples include internal stimuli (hunger) and external stimuli (advertising) (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014).
The choice to establish the need for purchase may vary depending on the various characteristics of the individual but is usually the starting point for purchasing activities that lead to information retrieval, evaluation, and investment
Stage 1 – information search
After recognizing the need, the consumer performs an ‘information search’ to ensure they are fully aware of available options.
If there is insufficient internal knowledge of the product to be purchased, external searches are required to supplement existing knowledge, and larger amounts of investigations may be needed for composite purchases with frequent purchases.
Stage 2 – evaluation of alternatives
In general, external searches can classify into three main sources. First, it can be done through private references such as friends and family, secondly through commercial sources such as advertising and salespeople, and finally through newspapers, magazines, catalogues, television, and the Internet.
Searches continue until relevant quality information is collected but may be limited by the availability and amount of essential knowledge. Too much information may restrict consumers’ ability to process information, preventing consumers from making the right decisions, and low availability may also determine consumers’ decisions about actual purchases. At this stage, social media adds new elements of information retrieval, allowing consumers to find more credible information.
Stage 3 – purchase decision
Purchasing is the last major step in determining what, where, and how a consumer purchases, and making a final choice for a product or buying a product is called a purchase decision.
Several factors are affected when an individual makes a purchase decision; opinions and attitudes of friends and family members, time, deciding on what to buy, availability of information, and whether to review. Because of these issues, it may be necessary to go back to the stage before the purchase decision and reconsider (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014).
Stage 4 – post-purchase behaviour
In the post-purchase stage, the product’s performance is evaluated based on the expectations that consumers had before purchasing the product and the satisfaction of the entire process until the final product purchase is determined by satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In particular, consumer satisfaction results from experience at every stage of the purchasing process, with one outcome affecting the occasion in another setting (Karimi, 2013).
Consumers may purchase the same product in the same way through their satisfaction assessment, or they may buy the product in a new way through more information and various channels.
Therefore, not only satisfaction with the final selection results but also satisfaction with the entire process of decision-making is a very important part of the consumer.
Impact of social media on consumers
The biggest advantage of an online platform is that consumers can purchase the Internet any time they need, meaning that various information can be obtained worldwide, without any geographical restrictions, through the online platform (DoHyung et al., 2007). Also, the quality and quantity of product information, product reviews, and reviews posted online by buyers themselves have had a significant positive impact on persuading potential consumers to make actual purchases Based on these advantages, ‘participatory culture’ such as sharing information about various types of products, services, and customers’ purchasing activities, and monitoring of products and services has been newly created through social media. (Ashman et al., 2015).
Conclusion
The advent of social media has caused new repercussions for companies. With the need for a new method that completely broke away from the existing marketing methods, they began to understand consumers’ tendencies and take a closer look at the purchasing process. Corporate marketers have become able to monitor consumer opinions, get feedback on company products, and read market trends by directly participating in various blogs, online communities, and online conversations through social media that they have never tried before.
Online purchases are already becoming increasingly massive and fragmented based on international connections. Market size continues to expand, with consumers introducing products through various Internet channels and actively exchanging, buying, and selling products. More consumers expect to participate in the process in the future actively.
Moreover, consumers will prefer marketing companies that read the market’s new trends quickly and understand their needs correctly. Then consumers will buy the company’s products. Companies must actively embrace and develop the changes that social media is making to meet the demanding standards of consumers.
References
- Ashman, R., Solomon, M.R. and Wolny, J. (2015) ‘An old model for a new age: consumer decision-making in participatory digital culture’, Journal of Customer Behaviour, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp.127–146.
- Do-Hyung, P., Jumin, L., & Ingoo, H. (2007). The effect of online consumer reviews on consumer purchasing intention: The moderating role of involvement. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 11(4), 125–148. doi:10.2753/jec1086- 4415110405.
- Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D. and Miniard, P.W. (1990) Consumer Behaviour, 6th ed., The Dryden Press, Chicago.
- Karimi, S. (2013) A Purchase Decision-Making Process Model of Online Consumers and its Influential Factor – a Cross-Sector Analysis, PhD Thesis, The University of Manchester, Manchester [online] http://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:189583 [Accessed 12 June 2021].
- Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2014) Principles of Marketing, 15th ed., Pearson Education, London.
- Kozinets, R. V., (1999). E-tribalized Marketing? The Strategic Implications of Virtual Communities of Consumption, European Management Journal, 17(3), 252–64.
- Lee CS, Goh DH-L, Chua AYK. 2010. Indicator: Investigating perceived gratifications of an application that blends mobile content sharing with gameplay. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 61(6): 1244–1257.
- Lipsman A. 2010. Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browser grows by triple-digits in the past year, Available at http://www. comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/ Facebook_and_Twitter_Access_via_Mobile_Browser_Grows_by_TripleDigits/(language)/eng-US [Accessed 17 July 2021].
- Ostrow (2010). Social Media and its Impact on Consumers Behaviour.
- Smith, T. (2009) ‘The social media revolution’, International Journal of Market Research, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp.559–561.
