The Role of Social Media Techniques in Influencing the Purchase Behavior of Customers towards Apparel Brands in China - Essay Example

This research will begin with the statement that academics and practitioners alike are trying to understand how the engagement between brand and consumer is formed, sustained and nurtured. Historical artifacts suggest that this engagement between brand and consumer was formed through numerous customer touch points such as in-store messaging, advertising, personal selling, retail environment, brand usage and public relations. With the evolution of the internet era, this engagement is also viewed in terms of virtual interaction between brands and social communities and online seekers of information.

Business communities, as well as academics, are particularly interested in means through which social media is useful or harmful during creating of customer experience. Consumers in today’s world can now access social media and information from virtually any place in forms such as shared recommendation, personal reviews as well as conversations after, during and before purchase. The background of the current research is set against the backdrop of increasing usage of social media techniques and their influence in purchase behavior of apparel brands across China.

With the increasing usage of internet among Chinese consumers, they are also constantly coming in contact with various social media sites. Statistical surveys on Chinese internet usage revealed that the nation added 29.4 million new users of the internet in the year 2005. In the year 2006, the number of internet users grew to 162 million.  Overall, internet penetration in 2000 in China was 1.7 percent which increased to a whopping 12.6 percent in the year 2006. Also, broadband user numbers in the year 2007 were 122 million.

In terms of gender ratios, 59.3 percent of Chinese networking citizens are male while 40.7 percent and females. Among these 57.8 percent are married compared to 42.2 percent which is unmarried. These networking individuals belong from diversified occupational platforms such as technology experts, commercial and office managers, fishery and forest workers, transport and manufacturing workers, military, service sector workers, teachers and unemployed. However, the highest number of internet users is students.