TABLE OF
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE
STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
1.2 RESEARCH
OBJECTIVES
1.4 HYPOTHESIS
1.5 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE
OF STUDY
1.8 OPERATIONAL/CONCEPTUAL
DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.9 REFERENCES
CHAPTER
2
LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.0 INTRODUCTION
2.1 WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
2.2 USE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA
2.3 ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
2.4 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA AND
TRADITIONAL MEDIA
2.5 CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA
2.6 ROLE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA
2.7 SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE NIGERIAN BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
2.8 USE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR
2.9 THEORIES RELATING TO SOCIAL MEDIA
2.10 CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETING.
2.10.0 CHALLENGES
OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
2.10.1 OPPORTUNITIES OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
2.11 SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETING STRATEGIES
2.12 MEASUREMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
2.13 CONCLUSION
2.14 REFERENCES
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
3.1 RESEARCH
OBJECTIVES
3.2 RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
3.3 HYPOTHESIS
3.4 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.5 SURVEY
METHOD
3.6 STUDY POPULATION
3.7 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT -
QUESTIONNAIRE
3.8 DATA ANALYSIS
3.9 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
3.10 CONCLUSION
3.11 REFERENCES
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.0 INTRODUCTION
4.1 ANALYSIS
OF FIELD PERFORMANCE OF QUESTIONNAIRE
4.2 SECTION
A – INTERPRETATION OF CODES
4.3 SECTION B – ANALYSIS OF DEMOGRAPHIC
DATA
4.4.0 SECTION C – ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH DATA
4.4.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 1
4.4.2 RESEARCH
QUESTION 2
4.4.2.7 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF RESEARCH QUESTION 2:
4.4.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 3
4.4.4 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF RESEARCH QUESTION
3
4.4.4 RESEARCH QUESTION 4
4.4.5 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF RESEARCH QUESTION
4
4.4.5 RESEARCH QUESTION 5
4.4.5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS OF RESEARCH QUESTION 5
4.5 SECTION D - TEST OF HYPOTHESES
4.5.1 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS 1
4.5.1. CHI-SQUARE TEST
OF HYPOTHESIS 1
4.5.2 TEST OF HYPOTHESIS 2
4.5.2. CHI-SQUARE TEST
OF HYPOTHESIS 2
4.5.3 TESTING HYPOTHESIS 3
4.5.4 CHI-SQUARE TEST OF HYPOTHESIS 3
4.6 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.7 REFERENCES
CHAPTER
5
SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 INTRODUCTION
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.2 CONCLUSION
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
“Marketing and
marketing communications mix is changing. New insights, new tools, new
opportunities and new challenges are emerging as the 21st century
progresses. The world’s 61/4 billion consumers and almost 400
million business customers are becoming increasingly accessible” (Smith and
Taylor, 2004, p 4) which makes them ready targets for new global competitors.
“Marketing has
moved from ‘customer acquisition’ (winning new customers) through ‘customer
retention’ (keeping customers for life) through customer selection (dumping unprofitable
customers while selectively seeking and keeping the more profitable ones)”
(Smith and Taylor 2004, pg 4) towards ‘customer relationship’ (interacting with
customers, gathering and analysing data on them and forecasting customer trends
and/or behaviours to enhance customer experience). This fact is further
buttressed by Arens, Weigold and Arens, (2008, p. 307), in this statement “the
key to building brand equity in the twenty-first century is the development of
interdependent, mutually satisfying relationships with customers and other
stakeholders.” Today’s marketers must therefore embrace continual change and
the opportunities and challenges that come with marketing.
One of the areas
of marketing in which this continual change is currently being experienced is
in the area of the marketing communications mix and brand managers need to have
“a basic understanding of the communication tools available to them and how
they can best be used in the overall communication mix” (Arens, Weigold and
Arens, 2008, p 307). One of the new communication tools available to brands now
is social media marketing which is a subset of digital marketing.
Social media,
although a relatively recent phenomenon, is becoming an increasingly important
part of any business’ marketing and client base development platform. Social
media provides a unique opportunity for brands to foster their relationships
with customers but “the dynamic, ubiquitous, and often real-time interaction
enabled by social media significantly changes the landscape for brand
management” (Gensler, Völckner, Liu-Thompkins and
Wiertz, p. 1). Brands on the other hand are highly valuable assets
for businesses and brand managers aim to “create strong brands with a rich and
clear knowledge structure in consumer memory by authoring compelling brand
stories” (Keller 1993; Srivastava, Shervani, and Fahey 1998). However, today,
“a brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is - it is what consumers
tell each other it is” (Cook, 2012).
“Consumer-generated
brand stories told through social media are much more impactful than stories
spread through traditional channels because they utilize social networks, are
digital, visible, ubiquitous, available in real-time, and dynamic”
(Hennig-Thurau et al. 2010 p. 12). This has led to the blend of social media
and customer relationship management (CRM) with the end result being “Social
CRM” a means of enabling brands listen, engage and successfully coordinate or integrate
consumer-generated and firm-generated brand stories on social media into their
communication mix to create compelling brand stories that strengthen customer
relationship and move them further into the sales funnel.
Of all the
marketing promotional tools, digital marketing has experienced the most changes
within a short period of time with more and more marketers embracing the many
opportunities it presents. Digital marketing is simply marketing online:
“identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers’ needs online” (Smith and
Taylor 2004, p. 620). This is split into several areas such as Search Engine Marketing,
Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing,
mobile media marketing, interactive out of home (OOH) as well as digital TV and
radio with social media marketing being one of the most important and
ubiquitous types.
Social media
marketing can be said to be a hybrid element of the marketing promotional mix.
This is so because in a traditional sense it enables brands to talk to their
customers, while in a non-traditional sense it enables customers to talk
directly to one another and to the brand in real time. For instance, it is now
possible for one customer to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of
other people about products/services and the companies that provide them. This
stands in contrast to the traditional marketing communications paradigm where
communication is usually one-sided.
When companies join the social channels,
consumers can interact with them and they in turn can communicate with
customers and potential customers directly. This interaction feels more
personal to users than traditional methods of marketing and can instil a
feeling of loyalty. Social media also isn’t just valuable
in and of itself; it is also valuable as a source of analytics and data which
can hint at what types of content will work as paid media. Brands therefore use
social media on the whole to connect with customers, stimulate and promote
positive brand-related stories as well as listen to and influence consumer-generated
brand stories while customers use social media to discover, research, and share
information about brands and products or services.
Also,
the fact that social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
Instagram, etc. enable brands to reach a much wider audience than some
traditional media alone like TV, radio, print etc. at a fraction of the cost,
(as most social networking sites can be used at no cost) has made it easier for
brands to accept it. Thus, now, instead of shelling out millions of Naira for a
30 second ad slot on TV or radio, brands can now generate buzz simply by
creating viral content and encouraging engagement.
Market
share according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary 2013 is defined as “the
percentage of the market for a product or service that a company supplies”. It
can therefore be implied that market share helps determine how well a business
is performing. “Past data analyses have consistently demonstrated that most
businesses with high market share enjoy above-average profit margins and rates
of return on investment while most businesses with smaller market share have
below-average margins and returns on investment.” (Nielsen 2013). One of the
first research suggesting the relationship between market share and
profitability came from Profit Impact of Marketing Strategist (PIMS) program
sponsored by the Strategic Planning Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts and
was first published in the mid-1970s.
According
to (Werner and Kumar, 2003, p. 82), the financial advantage of a strong market
position thus makes it a common strategic marketing goal in most organizations.
Usually, only market leaders are satisfied to just hold on to their existing
marketing shares while the number 2, 3 and below competitors are aggressively
trying to catch up with the leaders.
1.1 STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM
With
the advent of social media and more than half of the world’s population
registered with different social media platforms “brand managers have lost
their pivotal role as authors of their brands' stories” (Gensler et al, 2013, p
2). Instead, consumers who are now empowered to
share their brand stories easily and widely through social networks have gained
a more important voice that brand managers can no longer afford to ignore -
even for firms that decide not to actively participate in social media
themselves. As a result of this, the concept of Social Media is now top
of the agenda for many marketing executives as they try to identify ways in
which they can leverage their brands on social media platforms. Social media
has become an essential part of online marketing strategy due to its cost
effectiveness, ability to reach targeted audiences quickly and generate more
leads and sales. A research by Forbes (2014) also reveals that 94% of corporate
are using social media and 85% said it has given their business more exposure.
This has
culminated in a rapid adoption and creation of social media pages on the major
social media platforms by a growing number of brands both global and local and
Nigeria has not been left behind. This desire to become involved in social
media is understandable and the growth in social networks has been phenomenal.
But in order to make the best use of this medium it is imperative that
marketers not only understand what social media is, they also need to know what
role it can play in their marketing communication mix, how the use of social media
marketing can affect their brand’s awareness, relationship with customers,
product purchase and consequently market share.
1.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
It
is hoped that this research work will achieve the objectives below:
·
To examine the role of
social media marketing in a company’s marketing communications mix.
- To discuss
the impact of social media marketing on brand awareness of insurance
companies.
- To identify
the ways in which social media marketing can have an impact on the market
share of an insurance company.
Major
terms that will be examined in this study are marketing, traditional marketing
or media, digital marketing, social media, social media marketing, social media
platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram and Blog, customer
relationship management, brand loyalty, service industry, insurance and market
share.
1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This
research will be hinged on these questions:
- What role does social media
marketing play in the marketing communications mix of an insurance
company?
- How has the use of social media
impacted the awareness of these selected insurance firms?
- Has the adoption of social
media marketing by these firms resulted in effective demand for their
products?
- Can the use of social media
help improve the market share of the select insurance companies?
1.4 HYPOTHESIS
This research work will be based on
the following hypotheses:
H01
- Social media has no effect on the awareness of a company in the service
industry.
H02 - Social media marketing does
not lead to effective demand for a product.
H03
- The use of social media cannot improve the market share of a company in the
service industry.
1.5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Social media marketing is still a new
concept worldwide and the use of social media by brands in Nigeria is still at
the infancy stage. In the Nigerian insurance sector, the insurance companies
blazing a trail in social media marketing are Mansard Insurance and Leadway
Assurance whilst some like AIICO Insurance and Goldlink Insurance are catching
the fire but at a slow rate with the remaining Insurance companies being
totally absent on social media at the moment. Thus this research work will
cover these 4 insurance companies with a presence on at least one social media platform
at the time of this research.
The
research questions on which this study is hinged will be addressed with a
quantitative research method. Considering the subject matter of this research
work, the survey research method will be used with the above listed research
questions expanded into questionnaire form and administered on a randomly
selected sample size of 250 respondents out of the potential customers of
insurance companies who are on social media platforms. This sample size of 250
respondents will be chosen using simple random sampling and will consist of
people who are members of a brand community on any social media platform be it
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram or Blog and are between the ages of 18 –
60 years. A link to the questionnaire will be available online and also seeded
on popular social media platforms.
1.6 SCOPE OF STUDY
The
major variable to be considered in choosing respondents for the research is
that they must have an account on at least one of these social media platforms
– Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Blog and be part of a brand’s
community on these platforms. These respondents should be between the ages of
18 - 60 years with 18 years being the minimum age a person must have attained
before being able to sign up for an insurance cover in Nigeria and 60 years being
the maximum age an individual must not have exceeded to be able to sign up for most
insurance covers in Nigeria. These selected respondents can be located anywhere
in Nigeria since the questionnaire will be distributed online and therefore not
restricted to any geographical location. No special educational qualification
is required for the respondents as insurance is now available to almost
everyone irrespective of socio-economic class with Insurance companies now
rolling out products specifically designed for low income earners like artisans,
drivers, traders, etc in addition to their regular standard policies. One of
such Insurance policies is MTN Y’ello Life created by Mansard Insurance in
partnership with MTN with a premium of just N15/daily. Finally, as stated
earlier, this research work will cover the 4 insurance companies in Nigeria
with a current presence on social media platforms namely Mansard Insurance,
Leadway Assurance, AIICO Insurance and Goldlink Insurance with the first 2
having the most activity on social media.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
A
growing number of companies irrespective of industry be it service, consumer or
industrial are now using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to
enhance their brand communication and to promote and disseminate their product
information among consumers. The importance of this research work therefore lies
in the fact that when completed, it will provide marketers in the insurance
sector with relevant information on how their use of social media can have an
impact on their relationship with customers which may in turn affect the
customer’s purchase of their insurance policies and consequently the market
share of their brand when compared with that of their competitors. This is of great
importance in light of recent developments which shows that more marketers are
now willing to spend more on social media marketing as depicted in a research
by Nielsen and Vizu, April 2013 which showed that “70% of brand marketers were
planning to spend more on their social media marketing”.
It
is believed that when this research work is completed, its findings will
contribute meaningfully to the existing information on social media marketing, serve
as a guide to brand managers in the insurance sector on the use of social media
marketing and also provide a basis for future studies in Social Media
Marketing.
1.8 OPERATIONAL/CONCEPTUAL DEFINITION OF
TERMS
Blog
– is an abbreviated version of a ‘weblog’ which is a term used to describe
websites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information by an individual
with links to articles on other websites.
Brand loyalty
– this is the extent of faithfulness of consumers to a particular brand,
expressed through their repeated purchases irrespective of the marketing
pressure generated by the competing brands.
Customer relationship
management – is a strategy for managing all a
company’s interaction with current and prospective customers as a means of
increasing productivity, improving customer satisfaction and retention.
Digital marketing–
this is the promotion of products or brands through electronic channels and it
is of various types such as SEO, SEM, social media, mobile phones, electronic
billboards as well as digital TV and radio channels.
Effective Demand
– this is a reflection of the extent to which buyers’ income,
perceptions, loyalty/preference and needs combine to result in an actual
purchase rather than a mere desire to purchase. It is therefore the difference
between notional demand and latent demand.
Facebook
– is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to
create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with
friends, family and colleagues. The site which is available in 37 different
languages includes public features such as marketplace, events, pages and
presence technology. It is currently the largest social networking website in
the world.
Google+
- is Google’s social network. Google+ currently delivers functionality and many
features similar to those of Facebook.
Instagram
- is a free online program and social network that enables users to take, edit
and share photos with other users via Instagram’s own platform, email and
social media sites.
Insurance –
a risk-transfer mechanism that ensures full or partial financial compensation
for the loss or damage caused by event(s) beyond the control of the insured party.
LinkedIn
– is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community.
The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document
networks of people they know and trust professionally.
Marketing
– this is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating,
communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.
Market share –
this is the percentage of an industry or market’s total sales that is earned by
a particular company over a specific period of time. This metric is used to
give a general idea of the size/profitability of a company compared to its
competitors.
Service industry
– an industry made up of companies that primarily earn revenue through
providing intangible products and services.
Social media
– this refers to forms of electronic communication such as websites for social
networking and microblogging through which users create online communities to
share content such as information, ideas, personal messages etc. or participate
in social networking.
Social media marketing –
it is a form of digital marketing that utilizes social media platforms as a
marketing tool through the creation of content to gain brand exposure, broaden
customer reach etc. and is largely driven by word-of-mouth thereby resulting in
earned media.
Traditional marketing-
this is marketing that makes use of print, broadcast, direct mail and telephone
media to reach and disseminate information to a target audience.
Twitter
– is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables users
send and read short 140 character text messages called tweets.
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