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RESEARCH PROJECT
The impact of Social Media on Consumer
Buying Behavior.
Faculty Name: Prof. Imtiaz Arif
Group Members
Usama Bin Hameed (7427)
Mohsin Mukhtiar (7415)
Baber Farooq (8910)
Vajeeh Ur Rehman (5647)
April 27, 2016
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Contents
1 Introduction 5
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Research Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.6 Signiﬁcance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 Review of Related Literature 10
2.1 Theoretical Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Emperical Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3 Methodology 29
3.1 Research Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3 Data and Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.1 Data Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.2 Target Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.3 Sample Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.4 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.5 Sampling Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.6 Statistical Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.4 Statistical Model of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 Hypothesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.6 Ethical Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.7 Research Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Data Analysis 34
4.1 Instruments Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5 Conclusion 39
5.1 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
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Abstract
We have done this research to find out the variables which are ef-
fecting the consumer buying behavior. This is a quantitative research
which is based on the university students, so we have visited number of
public and private universities of Karachi to collect our data through
questionnaire. After collecting data we analyzed it through SPSS ver-
sion 22. We ran multiple tests on our data which are Reliability test,
Exploratory Factor Analysis and Regression. The results of these tests
shows the significance of our data and it also shows the positive and
negative dependence of our dependent variables on our independent
variables. Moreover our research will benefit the people who wants to
study the consumer buying behavior in social media perspective and
other knowledge hungry people
Key Words: Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB), Positive Cam-
paigns (PCAM), Negative Campaigns (NCAM), Positive Comment
(PC), and Negative Comment (NC).
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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
We are living in 21st century where almost everyone uses technology or in
other words people are dependent on technology. Social media also appears
in 21st century which is also a product of technology. Social media drasti-
cally changes the way people communicate with each other. Social media
becomes a popular tool of communication, through social media consumers
share their views about different products they consume (N. Hajli, 2015).
Consumers are largely influenced by word of mouth created by different con-
sumers about a specific product, so consumers intention of purchasing a
product is influenced by the word of mouth created by different consumers
about a specific product, whether it is positive or negative.
A study shows that when a person hears a good comment about a product or
service by his peer on a social networking site, there is a 15% more chance of
him becoming a customer than through any other means of communication
(Hudson & Hudson, 2013). It shows that how effective is social media in
convincing people to buy a product or commodity.
Social media has a big influence on a consumer like what they purchase
is highly dependent upon what they heard about the product on a social
networking site from their family, friends and other people in their social
circle(Urdan, 2013). So it is a big opportunity for the company to market
their product on social media and create a positive word of mouth about
their product.
In this era of social media, customers complaints are not taken lightly they
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are brought to the public attention and companies try their level best to over-
come their complaints to save the image of the company (Xia, 2013). So,
companies are making their pages on social networking websites like Face-
book, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. On these pages they invite consumers to share
their experience with their product. In this way companies can take the
feedback of the consumers.
Consumers can no longer be ignored on the social media so many organi-
zations started to participate on social networking sites (Sonja Gensler &
Wiertz, 2013). Companies are finding social media as an effective tool to
market their product and to create a good brand image in the minds of the
consumers.
A recent survey shows that approximately 88.2% firms started to consider
social media in their marketing strategy and 42% firms had already included
social media in their marketing strategy (Adam Rapp & Hughes, 2013). It
clearly shows that how serious companies are about the social media.
These studies clearly show that social media has a wide influence on the
consumers and companies have also started considering social media as an
effective way of communication with the consumers. Our study will further
consider the factors related to social media which influences the consumer
buying behavior.
1.2 Problem Statement
Social Media getting popular day by day, People are using it more frequently
than ever before. It has influenced the life of common people. It has now
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become basic need of everyone. Whenever we want information we just
search it on social media, the information is spread all over the social sites.
Now people can share the brand stories and the experiences they had with
the particular brand so the companies can no longer ignore the social media
(Sonja Gensler & Wiertz, 2013).
Social Media has many advantages and disadvantages like all other things
in this world but its advantages and disadvantages are bit different from
others because its advantages give you a lot of benefit and its disadvantages
can hit you big in other words its impact is very big. Consumers nowadays
take decisions on the basis of the information they get on Social Media in this
way brands always take care of their brands positive and negative campaigns.
The problem identified here is Impact of Positive and Negative Campaigns
on consumer buying behavior. Social media has a big influence on making
strong brands (Okoe, 2015). As the people spend their good time on social
networking sites so the chances are very high that these positive and negative
campaigns influence people or if it does not influence them at least they have
to see these campaigns on the social sites.
1.3 Research Objective
The core objective of our research is to find out how positive and negative
campaigns on the social media about different products affect the consumer
buying behavior. Another important reason for our research is to discover
how social media can be used as a tool to influence consumer buy different
products.
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1.4 Research Questions
Following are the questions that we need to answer by the end of our study.
How positive comments on social media about a product effect consumer
buying behavior?
How negative comments on social media about a product effects consumer
buying behavior?
How positive campaigns on social media about a product effects consumer
buying behavior?
How positive campaigns on social media about a product effects consumer
buying behavior?
1.5 Limitations
This research is limited to social media context. Here social media relates
to all the sites where people are sharing their ideas with no intervention.
Moreover this research is self-sponsored as it is a research of group members
of last semester of Bachelors of Business Administration. More limitations
will be discussed as we move further on in our research.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The findings of our study will help different companies and their marketers
to understand how social media can be used as an effective tool to influence
the consumers to buy their product. Our study is also helpful for the con-
sumers to understand how they can be manipulated by the different positive
and negative marketing campaigns about products on the social media. In
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addition to our research will help the other researchers who will be doing
research in the domain of consumer behavior. They can use our paper as a
reference for further study.
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2 Review of Related Literature
2.1 Theoretical Framework
People are connected with each other in the ways of relationships, these re-
lations consist colleagues, friends, office members, and relatives. They share
their information with each other and want them to share it to others. So-
cial links help them to stay connected. In addition to this they vary in their
statuses and positions, where as it can influence their impact that what is
spread in their network. People spread information to each other and gain
feelings of others views (Bandura & Bryant, 2002).
After this era there came the time of internet where people share information
on social sites exchange information and give feedback. This way a system
takes place people change their point of view by gaining the information and
work accordingly. Social media becomes a popular tool of communication in
21st century. People share their views, like, dislikes and other things on their
social media account.
People also share their experience about the consumption of different prod-
ucts on social networking sites. So, social media offers the consumers many
ways to interact with the firms which were not possible if we go 10 to 15
years back (Hudson & Hudson, 2013).
Social Media also helps in developing a relationship between consumer and
social media, this relation is generally of a type of trust which social media
builds. When social media develops the trust, the consumer is satisfied in
buying from social sites. These social sites become source of positive influ-
ence on consumer and the consumer feels good in telling it to other people
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which are in their contact (M. N. Hajli, 2013).
Moreover these social sites also spread word of mouth which can be of pos-
itive or negative in nature. Positive word of mouth influence in a way that
consumer will likely to buy it from social sites, while negative word of mouth
will not only affects the product image but also change their perception of
buying (Urdan, 2013).
In addition to this the consumers gather at one platform on social sites and
give their opinion about advertising campaigns may be these comments can
be positive and negative, whereas these consumers are like minded and visit
these social sites usually (Waller, 2012).
2.2 Emperical Studies
Nowadays social media is widely used to interact with sellers, retailers and
consumers. It means that companies adapted social media to communicate
with their target audience. A study shows that 93 % of business to business
community uses social media to interact with their stake holders (Adam Rapp
& Hughes, 2013).
This shows the huge influence of social media on business to business com-
munity. (Adam Rapp & Hughes, 2013) as cited in their research that the
consumers almost spend 25% of their internet time on social networking web-
sites (Nielsen 2010). In these websites consumers use to interact with their
friends, watch videos, photos and many more. So companies can use this
medium to communicate with their consumers cost effectively.
There are still number of firms in the market which does not have clearly
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defined social media strategy (Adam Rapp & Hughes, 2013). It is the high
time for the companies to be active in the social media because you can no
longer ignore the consumers on the social media. In this era of technology
there are millions of people who use social networking websites and other
forms of social media, so what people said on social media is seen by lots of
consumers around the globe.
Television, radio, magazines and other forms of traditional media is not the
only source of advertisement and communication between the brand and
the consumers. But social media is an increasing source which provides a
medium for communication between brands and their consumers (Schivinski
& Dabrowski, 2014).
(Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2014) as cited in their study that every one person
out of seven has a Facebook account and almost 90% people on the inter-
net visits social media cites (Nielsen, 2012). This shows that how frequently
people use social media. Social media is the most cost effective way of ad-
vertisement as compared to the traditional media like television, magazines,
radio etc. Through social media companies can cater huge audience in no
time (Saji, Chauhan, & Pillai, 2013). On social media companies can make
the pages for their brands and invite the people to share their views about
products. Companies can also create the advertising campaigns on social
media which will be more effective than the advertisement on traditional
media.
Consumers nowadays are moving more towards social media for the informa-
tion regarding product and services (Bambauer-Sachse & Mangold, 2011).
This means that the people are more comfortable in watching an advertise-
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ment or reading the reviews about products and services on social media.
Moreover social media also enables consumer to consumer communication
(Schivinski & Dabrowski, 2014). But in traditional media communication is
only one way which is company to consumers. So the social media is the most
effective and efficient way of advertising which allows consumers to commu-
nicate not only with the company but with the other consumers of the same
product.
As social media becomes a popular tool for the people to communicate with
each other and share their views about different product they consume which
will help consumers to make the buying decision. The element of trust be-
tween the firms and the consumers also plays an important role in making
the purchase decision (N. Hajli, 2015). The consumer decision of buying a
product is dependent upon the reviews and rating they see on the social net-
working sites and on other platforms. Reviews and rating are two effective
tools for developing trust among the consumers (N. Hajli, 2015).
The firms are actively participating on social media to create a positive feed-
back and rating about their product. The businesses are making online com-
munities which are encouraging the consumers to share their experiences,
knowledge and information about the product. The positive rating and feed-
back will help the consumers to take the buying decision. So it tells that
how important is for the companies to participate on social media to create
the positive word of mouth for them.
H1: A positive campaign on a social media about a product leads to a posi-
tive purchase decision.
As social media advertising is getting popular day by day so it is important to
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understand the consumer perception towards the social media advertisement.
A study shows that the consumers who have positive attitude toward social
media advertising respond positively toward advertisements (Okoe, 2015).
Likewise the people who have negative attitude toward social media adver-
tisement respond negatively toward social media advertisement.
H2: A negative campaign on a social media about a product leads to a neg-
ative purchase decision.
Companies also make their advertisement on social media in a manner that it
will create a long lasting impression on the minds of the consumers every time
they see it (Okoe, 2015). This is the reason why we can see that companies
are going out of the way to come up with an innovative idea of advertisement
and product campaigns on the social media. Because the companies wants
to leave an impression on their target audience thats why we can see the
interesting ideas advertisements on social media
The firms reputation in the global market also plays an important role in
how consumers perceive the social media advertisement of the company. The
global reputation of the firm is important because the consumers on the social
media are very much concerned about the authenticity of the advertisement
on social networking websites (Marsh, 2014). So the consumers will consider
the social media advertisement of those firms more authentic who have good
global reputation.
Moreover firms have different types of reputations regarding their price, qual-
ity, management, innovativeness and global reputation (Okoe, 2015). Every
firm has its own area of strength like some firms have a reputation of charg-
ing premium price, while others provide better quality etc. So the reputation
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of the firm plays an important role in how the consumers on social media
perceive the advertisements of different companys product.
In todays era Social Media is giving people an opportunity to interact with
each other on the internet. Now all consumers are using social media to share
their views and to talk with others. If we can study social media we can get
benefited from it in the field of business. It gives people a chance to com-
municate and build confidence among people that they can buy things from
internet. It gives a way to communicate in the shape of discussion forums
(M. N. Hajli, 2013).
Moreover internet has been spread widely all over the world and people use
social media in the forms of email, face book, twitter and etc. internet here
means web 2.0, now this technology has given internet a new shape. Online
forums are a useful way to communicate with people and share your thoughts
or knowledge with others (M. N. Hajli, 2013).
Marketing here takes birth and gives opportunity to people that they can
share their product ideas and information with people. Here product can not
only spread their information to people but also gets feedback from people
regarding their product. This practice keeps on going and both the parties
get benefited from it (M. N. Hajli, 2013).
H3: Positive comment by a consumer about a product on social media results
in positive purchase intention.
Furthermore people get to know about product reviews. These product re-
views are a good option for the consumers that they can get each information
and check the expected performance of the product. However these types of
platforms provided by social media always gives benefit leading to reliance
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and expected danger. But the material posted by unidentified users has be-
come a test (M. N. Hajli, 2013).
The Advancement nowadays in the field of Social Networking sites allows
E-commerce to enter into the business named as Social Commerce. People
interacting on internet which allows them to buy and sell things this connec-
tion is a little form of E-commerce mainly used as S-commerce. Formerly
there was a big boom in the field of S-commerce in the world which has
risen the problems that whether they have to buy or not buy products and
the products performance will be good or not. Mainly people do not trust
on these types of products on internet but Social Commerce gives them a
clue by interacting on social sites that its right or not. But if S-commerce
develops this field in the results will be better for the people. It mainly deals
with different kinds of other products.
People who use S-commerce are the one who before buying selling anything
on internet first read the information or feedback of people who have pre-
viously used it, in other words they are not initiators to the product rather
they are watching the whole situation to know more and more about prod-
uct so that they can choose a better product according to their expected
performance. Moreover S-commerce has one advantage that the users of s-
commerce exchange trust factor with the one from the purchase. S-commerce
uses many types of technologies to help the users to it. And through this
way it has influenced all other people whether its customers or firms (Kim
& Ko, 2012).
As the advancement in the field of technology internet which is the sole
provider of social media has given word of mouth. Now word of mouth is
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advantage or main key of it which provides communication channel to peo-
ple and informs them more and more about anything which may be right or
wrong (Urdan, 2013).
There are both types of WOM or rather we call it EWOM electronic word of
mouth in the shape of positive and negative. Positive EWOM helps product
to image better in the minds of product and increase the buying of people
regarding that particular product but in the case of negative EWOM it dam-
ages the brand reputation of a particular product and it changes the purchase
intention of people (Urdan, 2013).
H4: Negative comment by a consumer about a product on social media re-
sults in negative purchase intention.
WOM is generally an impact or force of people who have used a particular
product and gave their opinions about it. In this phase there is one person
who is sending the information and others are receiving the information. It
inﬂuences the people through communication within the groups of family
friends and relatives or others. By the peoples increasing use of internet as
a communicator and sales WOM gets more trust of people (Urdan, 2013).
As it has many advantages so it has many disadvantages as well because it is
now widely used by many companies so now it has practically implanted in
the corporate sector. It tells two things that it impacts the consumers and
it also changes the image of a particular brand (Urdan, 2013).
Social media has changed the mind of people in terms of buying process in
the recent years and the way they see the product. While they were using
the traditional selection process of products but now they have come to know
that better way of purchasing is to research or ﬁnd information about the
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product and then to make decision, and after making decision they come into
an association with the brand (Hudson & Hudson, 2013).
Now a days consumers have many different ways to get information about
the product and to make decision but this was not the case in previous years,
firms are trying to get connected with people through internet and commu-
nicating it to the consumers. Social networking sites have replaced the old
standard of getting information if a consumer want to purchase a product
he can get every information on social sites regarding the use and quality
of product. Social media drives people to purchase things and beneficial
for the company to increase sales (Hudson & Hudson, 2013). People are
spending their lot of time on internet and if they are spending that much
time so marketers believe that this is the best place to market their product,
now marketers are trying to figure out tactics which can help in commu-
nicating their product such as word of mouth. Moreover there is a strong
trend that social media give heavy returns of their investment, whereas on-
line brand forums are also an important way grab more customers to their
product(Hudson & Hudson, 2013).
Brands are usually an important asset for the company. Marketers nowadays
want to target in the minds consumers a particular personality of their prod-
uct by sharing a brand story to them. Moreover brand stories always have
a similar kind of design where there is a climax an emotional attachment
causing an empathy to the readers or listeners so that whatever they have
heard about product they can remember it and able to recall it in future.
There is also an important way of remembering the brand is that sharing the
stories of those people who have used the brand (Hudson & Hudson, 2013).
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In the past marketers have used one too many way of communication but now
the time has changed and marketers are changing their way of doing. As con-
sumers have now more power to communicate on social media so marketers
cannot ignore the fact that now they are not brand managers now people are
brand managers and share their brand stories on social media. While con-
sumer made brand stories have more impact on other instead of traditional
way of telling others so marketers are more concerned to the brand stories of
people their experiences shared by them on internet because a large number
of audience is sitting on internet and it will affect their buying decisions. The
main problem is that the brands image is constructed by same way and will
be understood by consumers in one direction whether positive or negative so
this will affect the firm that they really need to work on this issue (Hudson
& Hudson, 2013).
Over the world globalization is leading different global series. Appadurai
(1990) mentioned five different global series mediascapes (series of idea and
information), ideoscapes (series of public and beliefs), ethnoscapes (series of
travelers and outside learners), technoscapes (series of science and awareness
and finanscapes (series of resources and assets). Through social media the
five flows that are leading in which image and communication is dependent
on social media. Craig et al. (2009) notice that in consideration of global
series now in modern world from the developed countries cultural product
and lifestyle are expanding to developing countries. This is the outcome
of connection through routine media such as TV along with advance media
such as internet, electronic and social networking. Indian consumers still
influenced by foreign culture through foreign brand even if they have not
19

travelled abroad and foreign brands also come up with foreign culture with
them in the market place. Because of this coming globalization and devel-
oping countries consumers follow the lifestyles and consumption standard of
more economically developed countries. Different researches tell the Indian
consumers have high PFTB. Present researches indicate that globalization
is quickly influencing consumer culture in India and people approaching for-
eign brands. An individual get attract to foreign brands and adopting foreign
culture by consuming them. India is being one of them where Researches is
influences of globalization on the changing consumer culture of society. Such
influences more intensive on the consumer in the developing economies in the
world (Gupta, 2011).
The internet and especially social media provide facilities that how consumer
and marketers communicate. Numerous users attract with social media
websites and many of whom integrate in daily lives and business practices.
Consumer behavior is changing with unusual way for consumer socialization
through the internet. A public forum provide by social media where an in-
dividual have their own voices and access to product information that help
their purchase decisions. New style of consumer socialization has extreme
influence on consumer decision making and marketing strategies. In social
setting learning takes place is significant for clarifying learning ways which
can directly and in directly affect learning. Including social class, gender
and family consumer socialization is a product of many prior variables. Past
research points that learning ways through social media implicate reinforce-
ment and social interaction mechanisms concurrently also may have strong
influence on communication along with peers and suggest that peer commu-
20

nication via social media depends on force with peers and identification with
peer group. Through internet people have their virtual space to communicate
which is provide by social media and also an important factor of consumer
socialization. Social media deliver all tools that make socialization process
easy and convenient. Three conditions which help consumers socialization
among peers online. First blog, instant messaging, and social networking
sites also provide tools to make easy socialization process. In virtual soci-
ety new member can easily socialized with other members through electronic
communication and learn knowledge through interaction with other member
(Xia Wang & Wei, 2012).
Liu and Johnson (2005), state that consumers attract more favorably prod-
ucts when they create from countries that appreciate positive image or ideas.
The countries are economically developed in developing countries for con-
sumers. (Eckhardt & Mahi, 2004) argued that outside people not fully de-
pendent upon domestic or non-domestic site of production but consumers
perception. Towards brand the positive perception of consumers and pur-
chase preference start from economically developed countries. Consumers
culture is defined as growth of local consumer culture to global consumer
culture which a consumer experience due to impact of globalization. From
different cultures changes in cultural occurred in two individuals when they
came into constant first hand contact with each other. Researchers expanded
definition of culture. They add indirect exposure through media and com-
munication forces of leading foreign culture which change the native culture.
Cultural views change by political, economic and technological forces. In
India many of foreign brand products are manufactured with joint ventures
21

but these products still keep foreign image in the Indian consumers mind.
Consumer mindset is no matter whether product is manufactured local or
international they get attract with brand name people get influence with
foreign brands and through foreign brand they adopt the foreign culture.
From economically developed countries consumer generated positive percep-
tion and purchase preferences towards brands. Indian consumers give more
importance to foreign brands they perceived to have better quality and tech-
nology as compare to their local brands. Due to influence of globalization
in India as compare to the older generation young generation are consuming
more western specific culture brands (Gupta, 2012).
There is continuous argument over the actions of brand and companies in so-
cial media. For customers social media deliver the possibility to foster their
relationships with brands. There are two concepts of social media based
brand community; brand community and social media. Definition of social
media set of internet based applications that forms on ideological and tech-
nological support of Wed 2.0 and permits the creation and exchange of user
produced content. This definition suggests that the content is not used by
people passively. Instead it is generated, shared and used by users actively
producing content (UGC). There are many researches concentrating on the
value of UGC in several contexts. So many platforms for social media in-
clude social networking, photo sharing, wikis and discussion forums however
it is usually coined with famous internet based sites as YouTube, Wikipedia
and Twitter. A brand society as a specific non-geographically limit society
based on the form of social relation among admirer of a brand. The context
of these societies is the consumption of goods and services. Creation and
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negotiation of meaning is the significant thing being common in brand com-
munity. More advantages brand communities providing information sharing,
linking the history and the culture of the brand, and positively influencing
brand loyalty. Social media fulfills need of belongingness by providing con-
nection with people. Moreover brand communities help their members with
sharing information from different sources and values. Also provide the op-
portunities for being touch with loyal customers. Increasing brand loyalty is
the most important advantage of companies which is called Holy Grail for
business (?, ?).
To communicate product or service information to their prospective and build
brand-image company use different kind of media in offensive marketing. So-
cial media in which consumer complaints and dissatisfaction are brought to
public noticed and witnessed by many consumers companies managing such
complaints and discontent effect on company reputation and brand image.
Social media provide platform for offensive and defensive strategies but at the
same time its also provide challenges and opportunities for firms. Through
offensive marketing such as advertising and promotion companies show brand
strengths and values presented to consumers in communication brand to the
target consumers. May be brand have weakness but they are not planned
to have those weakness and surely do not want them to be publicized. But
still weakness and or defects are difficult to hide in the age of social media.
Command shift between firms and consumer naturally influences brand con-
sumer communication along with companies branding efforts (Xia, 2013).
In social media two typical reactions observed to consumer criticism. One is
to avoid the complaint reject the flaw, and try to defend the brand image,
23

which suggest to as defensive reaction. Other one is to accept the defects
and justify which suggest to as vulnerable reaction. More easy to be defen-
sive because every company likes and aims to maintain its brand perfect.
Furthermore research suggests that by confessing to wrong doing and admit-
ting responsibility may contribute to higher level of perceived responsibility
and therefore lower positive attitude and purchase object. So in building
consumer brand relationships vulnerable is more effective because it conveys
more respect and honesty for consumer (Xia, 2013).
The web when newly introduced it created social environment with pupils.
There has never ever created such a social environment which link the indi-
viduals with one another.it has been realized that usage of traditional media
is quite decreasing just because of widely usage of social media such as twit-
ter, blogs Facebook and other webs. Now a days social media sites like
Facebook, twitter, MySpace attract more than 100 million visitors within a
month (Akar & Topcu, 2011) Social websites have been becomes t0he one of
the major component of hundreds of millions of internet users all over the
world. On social media there is few academic studies on social sites just like
studies which is comprised of research papers, articles, magazines, newspa-
pers, Wikipedia, writings, and blogs with related topics to the social sites
(Akar & Topcu, 2011) Marketers are now trying to understand the use of so-
cial media as major component of their marketing strategies and campaigns
to reach out their loyal customers through promotions, marketing intelligence
and marketing communications (Akar & Topcu, 2011)
On social media platform such as Blogs, pop ups online discussion forums
and online communities online offering products has a major effect on mar-
24

keting performance just like sales. Many companies promote their products
on social media marketing by through the use of social channel like online
marketing through web based promotion strategies such as online advertis-
ing campaigns and email newsletters. One of positive effect of companies on
social media is that their consumers share online information about the com-
panys products and their services which offers and their performance (Akar
& Topcu, 2011)
Technology is transforming marketing strategies, by competing through
cost leadership and offering new opportunities to engage their customers.
Technology based self-services (TBSS) where consumers direct utilize tech-
nology by being without any involvement of service employee by perform a
service that how technology can be used to improve the performance, by using
technology how can they deliver additional value to their targeted customers
by improving their competitiveness and efficiency (Dibb, Marylyn Carrigan,
Schuster, Drennan, & N. Lings, 2013).
With respect to understand these benefits consumers try to choose and ac-
cept technology and services get together. This requires marketers to un-
derstand and then by through realization and try to change the attitude,
perceptions and expectations of service. Technological based self-service is
social marketing where social goals can be achieved through social market-
ing mix. The technology based self-services was basically designed for replace
the daily routines which usually do in our normal lives of interpersonal ser-
vice delivery. Credence services are those services in which consumers try
to learn specialized knowledge to produce in credence services consumers
face hard difficulties after evaluation it is difficult to avoid trial. Consumers
25

are highly interpersonally involved in technology based self-services as com-
pared to other services. Despite of that consumers know the basic differences
in the other service product delivery via technology but consumers mostly
preferred the technology based self-services option for the credence services.
Consumers while using the credence services means achieving goals or out-
comes (Dibb et al., 2013).
The luxury market is now almost reached at their maturity phase with solely
growing fame in the market and its customers growing rapidly. Luxury mar-
ket is based on highly value added industry on its highly valuable branded
assets. The rapid boom reflects in the countries of south Asia like china
India and the rest bring more opportunities to grow their business in lav-
ish markets. In the past most customers are becomes loyal just because of
their strong fashion luxury brands and secure their loyal customers. How-
ever entrances of new fashion brands in extravagance market create a cut
throat competition which also impact on new entrance on market. The core
objective of luxury fashion industry is to provide values to the customers
in every possible manner. Most of the companies interconnected with cus-
tomers through effective communication with consumers, luxury brands keep
focus on social media and try to capture the attention of customers on social
media (Kim & Ko, 2012).
Most of the marketers using a social media channel such as twitter YouTube
Facebook MySpace is good tools of running business of fashion brands. Now
a days traditional designer like Louis Vuitton provides their own live broad-
casting videos on their blogs which grabs high attention of consumers. Lets
have a glance on other brands like Ralph Lauren, Channel, Donna Karan,
26

and Gucci all these started work with Apple to create iPhone application
which will the consumers. Most of the luxury fashion houses make their
own twitter accounts and Facebook accounts which help them to post about
products or services (Kim & Ko, 2012).
Self-regulation within the advertising industry on social media is common
model which exists in numerous countries throughout entire globe. One of
the major in the industry is to minimize the eﬀects of controversial messages
on social media which have several impacts on consumers buying process,
their aim is to make rules to control the controversial message and remove
them from the media. Whereas by looking at the traditional media they have
very limited regulatory control, however traditional media does not interlink
with the internet sphere. Now we are able to know the importance of social
media which makes our life easier for example internet which inﬂuences our
daily life like email, MySpace YouTube and weblogs which appears to change
the roles of parties which are linked up with the self-regulatory process, lets
have a glance on an example that advertiser can distribute their messages
and share information about their products or services which is banned in
traditional media. One of the big advantages is on new sites like Facebook,
MySpace and YouTube where consumers have an option to share information
about the products or services and also give their opinions and feedback and
option to advertising campaigns via blogs. The advertising industry has the
power which is implemented for the members including regulators, advertis-
ers, as well as for consumers. The main purpose of the paper is to make the
rules of social media to stop posting controversial message on social media
(Waller, 2012).
27

The design of websites which creates highly inﬂuential experience to the con-
sumers, many of consumers or visitors are get relevant information through
the web. Through the right Web Experience where information and function-
ality go get together, which stimulating emotions which are very essential.
Consumers are now showing high level of involvement and reaction on web.
It is noticed that consumers are rapidly moving towards the online shopping
experience which provide higher level of value to the consumers and also help-
ful for consumers, they can buy products by just one click. Higher level of
consumers involvement with product online might create high level of interest
towards fashion. Had greatly enforced onto the e-retail environment which
open the new window of fashion inspiration would become an increasing an
important trend. With continuously growing awareness between younger
groups of consumers are tried to ﬁnd out innovative and unique designs on
social weblogs. Towards online shopping we never ever seen online shopping
boom ever, as young consumers are now interested in fashion clothing shop-
pers are largely enthused by their sense. It is observed that consumers are
ambiguous while purchasing online products, the core reason behind this that
cover all aspects is how much others think or feel about this or that product
(McCormick & Livett, 2012)
28

3 Methodology
3.1 Research Purpose
Our research purpose is to find out how positive and negative campaign about
a product on social media affects the consumer buying behavior. And we will
also find that how positive and negative comments on social media about
specific products affect the consumer intention to purchase that product.
3.2 Research Design
We are adopted quantitative method for conducting our research. The reason
for adopting this method of research is our topic which is ”Impact of Social
Media on Consumer Buying Behavior”. The consumer behavior is better
understood by quantitative method because this will give us the statistical
data consumers. We can also involve the large number of respondents in our
study which is not possible in qualitative method.
3.3 Data and Sampling
3.3.1 Data Sources
we will send the questionnaire to different peo ple on social networking sites.
So, in this manner we can increase the response rate of the people and it will
be convenient and easy for our respondents to answer our questions on social
media as compared to answering the questionnaire physically.
29

3.3.2 Target Population
Our target population for this research is the one who are internet users who
frequently visit social sites, not only read product reviews but also comment
in the form of feedback. The age group that we are targeting is ¿18 because
these are the people who mostly visit social sites.
3.3.3 Sample Size
We have collected the data from 200 individuals by visiting some public and
private universities of Karachi. But when we were putting our data on Spss
version 22 we came to know that some of the questionnaires were not ﬁlled
properly, so we excluded those questionnaire from our study and in the end
we were left with the sample size of 183 respondents.
3.3.4 Data Collection
Beside, distributing the questionnaires online we will also visit public and
private universities of Karachi for data collection.
3.3.5 Sampling Technique
Moreover sampling technique of our research was non random sampling as it
is more convenient than other types of sampling and less time consuming. We
visited public and private universities of Karachi and got our questionnaire
ﬁlled by the students.
30

3.3.6 Statistical Technique
We used multiple statistical techniques on our data like for ﬁnding out our
instruments reliability we used Cronbach Alpha reliability test and for ana-
lyzing our data we used regression and factor analysis tests. These tests gave
us the better insight of our data.
3.4 Statistical Model of the Study
Equation,
C.B.B = Constant(α) + β1(P.C) + β2(N.C) + β3(P.Co) − β4N.Co) (1)
Where,
C.B.B = Consumer Buying Behavior
P.C = Positive Campaigns on Social Media about a Product
N.C = Negative Campaigns on Social Media about a Product
P.Co = Positive Comment on Social Media about a Product
N.Co = Negative Comment on Social Media about a Product
3.5 Hypothesis
H1: A positive campaign on a social media about a product leads to a positive
purchase decision.
H2: A negative campaign on a social media about a product leads to a
negative purchase decision.
31

H3: Positive comment by a consumer about a product on social media results
in positive purchase intention.
H4: Negative comment by a consumer about a product on social media
results in negative purchase intention.
3.6 Ethical Consideration
For conducting the research ethical consideration is also one of the important
point to note. By choosing the right candidate for the study this includes
the consistency of data sources. Further more we didn’t force people to be
our respondents and we also make sure that the names of our respondents
will be kept secret and their data shouldn’t be used for any other purpose.
3.7 Research Model
Figure 1:
The ﬁgure represents our research model which shows the relationship of
our independent variables on our dependent variable. Our research model
32

shows that how positive and negative campaign about a product on social
media affects the consumer buying behavior. Moreover our research model
also shows that how positive and negative comments on social media about
specific products affect the consumer intention to purchase that product, it
not only changes the intention of consumer but also change their behavior
towards the product. Whereas consumers also get influence and react to the
situation which is portrayed.
33

4 Data Analysis
4.1 Instruments Reliability
Table 1: Reliablility Statistics
Variables Cronbach’s Alpha Overall Cronbach’s Alpha
Consumer Buying Behavior .781
.883
Positive Campaigns .827
Negative Campaigns .685
Positive Comments .715
Negative Comments .570
The above table shows the reliability test of our instrument. The overall
value of Cronbach Alpha is 0.833 which clearly means that our instrument is
reliable. The minimum value which makes instrument reliable is 0.5 but our
value is far more than the minimum value which shows that our instrument
is very much reliable. The Cronbach Alpha of our all five variables is also
more than 0.5 as shown in the above table, so it means that our instrument
is effectively measuring our variables.
Before advancing to exploratory factor analysis we ran KMO and Bartlett’s
test. We have found that the value of KMO test is 0.867 which is meritorious
according to (Statswiki, n.d.). Moreover the value of our Bartlett test is also
significant which is less than 0.005. So these test’s means that the data is
good enough to run factor analysis.
34

4.2 Findings
Table 2: Rotated Component Matrix
Component
1 2 3 4 5
PCAM2 .806
PCAM1 .777
PCAM3 .705
PCAM5 .669
PCAM4 .655
CBB4 .772
CBB3 .680
CBB5 .646
CBB2 .635
CBB1 .583
NCAM4 .653
NCAM2 .627
NCAM3 .613
NCAM1 .542
NCAM5 .442
PC4 .790
PC3 .650
PC5 .612
NC5 .702
NC1 .641
NC3 .588
Above table shows the correlation between the variables. We can see the
items grouped together which means that all the items are measuring their
variables respectively. In addition too there is no cross loading among the
variables.
As we can see from the table 3 that the value of adjusted r square is 0.356
which shows that our independent variables which are positve comments,
35

Table 3: Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
1 .608a .370 .356 .617
negative comments, positive campaigns and negative campaigns predicts only
35.6% of our independent variable which is consumer buying behavior. This
value shows that there are other variables who will predict the consumer
buying behavior but they are not included in our research.
Table 4: ANOVA
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1 Regression 39.801 4 9.950 26.153 .000
Residual 67.722 178 .380
Total 107.523 182
Table 4 shows the significance of our research model coloum at the right
shows that our significance value is o.ooo it means that our regression is sat-
isfactory.
Table 5: Coefficinets
Model
Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) .898 .265 3.390 .001
PCAM .150 .060 .177 2.510 .013
NCAM .338 .075 .327 4.527 .000
PC .218 .065 .234 3.378 .001
NC .034 .052 .043 .647 .518
Significance value of our first variable negative campaigns is 0.013 accord-
ing to the above table. It shows that our hypothesis is accepted as the value
36

shows that more than 95% of our respondents thinks that positive campaigns
about a product on social media positively effects the consumer buying be-
havior. As (N. Hajli, 2015) also said in his research that consumer decisions
are dependent upon the positive campaigns they saw about a product o so-
cial media platform.
Now coming towards our second variable which is negative campaigns. The
above table shows the significance value of .000 which tells us that almost
100% of our respondents thinks that the negative campaigns on social media
positively effects the consumer buying behavior. It means that our hypothe-
sis is rejected because according to our hypothesis negative campaigns should
effect negatively the consumer buying behavior. This can be due to the mul-
tiple reasons. One can be that the people doesn’t find the negative campaigns
so reliable that they change their purchase intention. Another reason can be
that our respondents didn’t fill our questionnaires properly or they didn’t
understand it properly.
The above table also shows the significance value of our third variable which
is 0.001. It made it clear that the majority of our respondents thinks that the
positive comment on social media about a product will positively effects their
purchase intentions. So our third hypothesis is also found true as (M. N. Ha-
jli, 2013) said in his research that different people share their views about
a product on social media which will positively effects the consumer buying
decision.
At last the significance value of our fourth independent variable is 0.518
which shows that we didin’t find enough evedince to prove our hypothesis
right. So only half of our respondent thinks that negative comments on social
37

media about a product will eﬀect the purchase intention of consumers. On
the basis of only half of our respondents we cannot say that the negative
comments will have any eﬀect on consumer purchase intention.
38

5 Conclusion
In conclusion of our research which is based on impact of social media on
consumer buying behavior we have researched some variables which were ef-
fecting the consumer buying behavior in positive and negative manner so we
developed four hypothesis based on our research model.
We have hypothesized that positive campaigns and positive comment on
social media about a product will positively effects the consumer buying be-
havior. Moreover positive campaigns and positive comments on social media
about a product will negatively effects the consumer buying behavior.
After running regression on our data set we have found that positive cam-
paigns and positive comments are effecting the consumer buying behavior
in positive manner but against our hypothesis negative campaigns are posi-
tively effecting the consumer buying behavior, it is due to multiple reasons
that i have explained in my data analysis portion of research.
At last our hypothesis four is rejected which means that negative comment
on social media has no significant impact on consumer buying behavior. It is
due to the fact that we haven’t found enough evidence from our respondents
on the basis of which we can say that our hypothesis is accepted.
5.1 Recommendations
On the basis of the research that we have done during the past one year we
will recommend that more variables should be studied which have the impact
on the consumer buying behavior because our variables only predict 35% of
the consumer buying behavior. In addition too our research will help the
39

people who are studying marketing and wants to know about the consumer
consumption patterns. Our research will also help the other students in
conducting their research.
40

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