The Impact of Digital Marketing on Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example

The Impact of Digital Marketing on Consumer Buying Behaviour Among Young Users of Mobile and Internet Services in UAE (Researcher’s Submission) Abstract With the advancement in technology, many consumer companies have turned to digital marketing to influence brand choice and alter customer behaviour. As a promotional media, digital marketing targets young and educated consumers who make up the large number of mobile and internet users. Its connectivity, flexibility, and convenience enable this strategy to revolutionize how marketers use digital media to promote products and services to young tech-savvy users. Because of this new marketing trend, this paper aims to explore the impact of digital marketing on consumer buying behaviour. Specifically, it intends to analyse the consumer attitudes towards four sub-types of interactive digital advertising such as internet-based and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS and MMS-type advertising for young users in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market. This is done by conducting a survey on three selected campuses at UAE. The survey questionnaires will focus on the frequency and influence of digital service usage among students. It will also explore the attitudes of young users about internet and mobile based advertising done by companies. The results of the survey, along with the supporting literature, will determine the scope and amount of influence that digital marketing has among students. Lastly, recommendations will be made from the study in order to help marketers and researchers improve their product promotion strategies through the use of digital technology. Introduction This study generally intends to answer the question: how does digital marketing influence the consumer buying behaviour? Specifically, this study sought to find answers to the following questions: 1) In what ways does digital marketing change the consumer buying behaviour of young internet and mobile users in the UAE market? 2) What are the consumers’ attitudes towards digital advertising in both internet and mobile based media? 3) How did the survey results correlate with the related literature on digital marketing and consumer behaviour? 4) Based on the study results, what recommendations can be made to consumer companies that utilize digital marketing in UAE? These questions will be necessary to guide the researcher in confronting a general topic about digital marketing and applying it to a target market in UAE. Identifying the changes in consumer behaviour will also reveal the impact of digital marketing among its users. Moreover, determining the consumer attitude towards digital marketing will tell us about the amount of influence that mobile and internet marketing has on consumer buying behaviour. Furthermore, exploring the relevance between survey results and existing literature will also add to the growing research on the topic of digital marketing. Lastly, the recommendations from the study will help marketers to improve their product promotion strategies through the use of digital technology. It will also guide other researchers to use the recommendation as basis for further research on the topic. Research Aims This research aims to determine and analyse the consumer attitudes towards the use of four sub-types of digital advertising such as internet-based and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. The purpose of the study is to provide information about the effects of digital marketing on consumer behaviour since it is the most popular media among the young and tech-savvy users nowadays. Research Objectives This study generally sought to determine the influence of digital marketing on consumer buying behaviour. Specifically, this research sought to attain the following objectives: 1. To determine the change in customer buying behaviour brought about by digital marketing among internet and mobile users in the UAE market. 2. To analyse the consumers’ attitude towards interactive digital advertising. 3. To examine the academic literature related to consumer attitude and digital marketing, thereby establishing the relation between both the concepts. 4. To make recommendations about the digital marketing strategies used by marketers. Relation to Previous Research For a marketer, communicating with customers anywhere at any time is an essential way to effectively promote products and services. Nowadays, this type of marketing communication has been revolutionized by the development and innovation of digital technology. According to Stewart (2004), digital technology has paved way for immediate interaction between marketers and consumers through digital advertising. In the study done by Radzeviciute & Sliburyte (2005), it was revealed that the most common form of digital marketing tool is the short messages where photographic images can be transferred to computer, mobile phones, and online community. With this, four sub-types of digital marketing strategies were also identified and these are the internet-based and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS- and MMS-type advertising. Over the years, the growth and development of digital marketing has largely been due to its precision, personalization, precision, measurability, easy targeting, and customization (Radzeviciute & Sliburyte, 2005). As such, the need to study client attitudes towards digital selling, as explored by Ponemon (2003), has led to the forecast that “digital marketing is largely making an impact to consumer behaviour because of its interactivity”. This interactivity is due to the fact that consumers are able to participate and contribute to product promotion due to the rise of social media and search media online. Moreover, because of the prevalent use of digital technology among consumers, researchers have increasingly explored different types of digital marketing strategies used by companies. Kiggundu (2007) explored email campaigning as a way of advertising products and services. Johnson et. al. (2008) focused on clients’ attitude towards mobile campaigning via SMS and MMS category. However, according to Koren (2006), the study on digital marketing through mobile commerce needed further studies so that it can be fully understood and utilized by marketers. The researcher’s study specifically looked into the (1) concepts of digital marketing with emphasis on mobile commerce and mobile marketing; (2) tools used mobile marketing, (3) importance and relevance of mobile marketing in India and (4) consumers’ attitudes toward digital marketing tools used by companies. Lastly, for Bellah et. al. (2005), researchers need not only focus its attention on client attitudes toward mobile marketing but also with internet-based email campaign because of the prevalence of social networking sites and search engine sites among young tech-savvy consumers. With this, previous researchers have already emphasized the need to conduct further study on digital marketing. Thus, reviewing past studies about the topic is essential so that the researcher will have an initial idea how the research was done and what were its significant results. Also, the researchers will need relevant literature on digital marketing in order to make further analysis of the data results in this study. Also, these relevant literatures will support the hypothesis and validate the result of the research. Proposed Methods To answer the general research question on how does digital marketing influence the consumer buying behaviour, a quantitative survey method was chosen as the research tool to identify the consumer attitudes of young internet and mobile users in UAE towards four sub-types of interactive digital advertising such as internet-based and email advertising, and mobile-phone-based SMS and MMS-type advertising. As a type of methodology, the survey method is an important tool to answer a particular research question as it will present numerical data to explicitly show the response of the stakeholders involved in the study. Also, quantitative survey results will be analysed together with relevant literature about digital marketing and consumer behaviour. In this way, data results will be compared and supported through existing studies. For this study, a pilot survey or pre-testing will be necessary to know whether the entire methodology in the study is realistic and workable. Also, the pilot study will also be helpful to identify a research failure or error in study design before researcher can proceed and actualize the entire research. Participants in the Study For this research, the target respondents include three selected campuses in the UAE that is composed of a student population who are known to be active in using mobile phones and internet sites inside the university campus. The decision to focus on college students is based on the fact that a significant market of mobile telecommunication and internet users who are mostly university students who are active in receiving and disseminating information online. Indeed, avid users of digital technology are revealed to be usually young and tech-savvy students who use mobile phone and internet to connect with friends and receive information. It is also found that college student groups in UAE have higher access rate in mobile advertisements and services as Wi-Fi and internet services remain present inside the university campuses. In this way, the consumer behaviour of young users of digital technology in the UAE market will be equally represented. Survey Questionnaires The questionnaires for the survey will be composed of 20 open-ended questions about the frequency and influence that digital marketing in the lives of these students. This is necessary in order to assess their subscription and usage of mobile and internet technologies. Also, the survey questionnaires will include rating the most commonly known products that the students have come across via online or internet advertising. This is important so that the researcher could test the existence of product recall based on digital marketing. Moreover, students’ preference of online interactive mediums such as Skype, Yahoo! or other web-based sites will be documented by the researcher. When it comes to mobile marketing, it is also important that the researcher will know the sites commonly accessed by young mobile users. Lastly, it is important that the views of students about the use of technology for product promotion will be documented. Once the surveys are collected, its varied results, along with the supporting literature, will determine the final analysis for this study. Reflections As with all researches, there are limiting factors which will be foreseen in conducting this study. First, finding a significant number of respondents around college campuses can be a tedious task for the researcher. Also, the monitoring of users will be a challenge in conducting the survey. Moreover, it can be time-consuming for the researcher to collect the data from respondents. Adding to the time factor would be the cost of monitoring the research. With these, it might be helpful to come up with the comprehensive plan on how to monitor the collection of data. Since the study can be broad, it is important to keep track of the respondents both personally and online. It is necessary to communicate with them about the progress of the research. As much as possible, the researcher will come up with the back-up plan in case the respondents fail to turn over the survey results. On ethical concerns about the study, it is important to take note that respondents should be willing to track and disclose their online activities to the researcher. Also, the respondents who are not willing to disclose their identity will be still be part of the study. Other necessary requests by respondents will be fully considered by the researcher. For instance, if the respondent refuses to name the brands he subscribes to, then the researcher can keep the respondent’s answer confidential. Conclusion The study on the impact of digital marketing on consumer buying behaviour among mobile and internet users in UAE is promising study that will reveal the effects of digital media on our day to day living. As such, this research is therefore considered to be relevant in increasing our understanding about how technology changes the way people spend and buy products. In UAE especially, it is necessary that researchers know about how much digital technology can affect the behaviour of young mobile and internet users. Through this study, marketers and researcher will be able to know what particular factors of digital marketing can change the behaviour of consumers. In the future, this research will be useful in understanding the amount of influence that the technology has in our lives. References 1. Stewart, D.W. (2004) The new face of interactive advertising: it’s time to rethink traditional ad research strategy. Marketing Research, 16(1), pp. 10–15. 2. Radzeviciute, R. & Sliburyte, L. (2005) Elektroninio marketingo iššu¯ kiai planuojant integruotą marketingo komunikaciją. Organizaciju˛ Vadyba: Sisteminiai Tyrimai, 34, pp. 177–200. 3. Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swidler, A. and Tipton, S.M. (2005), Habits of the Heart, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 4. Koren, M. (2006), Tell Me! The Right of the Child to Information, NBLC, The Hague. 5. Kiggundu, J. (2007), “University education and intellectual property in the digital era: whither Botswana?”, Seminal paper, University of Botswana, Gaborone, 14 April. Read More