INTRODUCTION

Firstly, I will introduce the Topic

The advancement of the internet allows the consumers to use social media features and
platforms to exchange information about product/service before purchasing with the intention
of making it available to others. Thus, a meaningful bond between marketers and consumers is
formed.

So, coming to the Motivation and Objectives

Manufacturers, Researchers, and Businesses realize that, using social media is one of the best
way to reach target users, especially younger audiences, since higher than 55% youth, and
teens use these sites regularly to talk, interact, share, play games, and so on.
Scholars have already conducted some research about the social media influence on people’s
purchase behavior, while the study on purchase behaviors of young consumers is relatively few.
This project attempts to study, and understand the behavioral responses of the young
consumers of age 13 to 25, due to the influence of social media.

Now I will discuss the Literature Review

Firstly, what is Social Media Network?
Social media Network is a virtual environments with an interactive media structure where
people with common interest are brought together to learn, create and share their
experiences, ideas, content and perspectives about varied topics, including brands, products,
and services.
Social media can involve: instant social chat apps (eg. WhatsApp), social networking sites (e.g.,
Facebook), image sharing sites (e.g., Instagram), video hosting sites (e.g., YouTube), virtual
social/gaming environments (e.g., Minecraft), social collective projects (e.g., WikiHow), social
review sites (e.g., Yelp), community discussions/ forum/ ask & answer platforms (e.g., Quora,
Reddit), game-focused social Platforms (e.g., Discord) and community blogs (e.g., Medium,
Tumblr, etc.)

Even though E-Commerce platforms like Amazon are not Social Media but they realize the
significance of Social Media and have incorporated Social Media Features on their own website
by letting users ask, answer, provide ratings, reviews, share media, and engage with others.
Additionally, they also have their brand presence on various Social Media Platforms to drive
more engagement; highlight deals, competitions and offers.

Relation between Social Media Network and Consumer Community

Users access and share a considerable amount of information with everyone and that’s exactly
how social media impacts the consumer’s behavior and their purchase intention.

The social media consumer community disseminates two kinds of product/service information
namely, Seller created information and User Created information.

1) Seller-created information involves advertisements, concealment of imperfect features

of their product/services while good features are highlighted
2) Secondly, User-created information - are considered as more identifiable, relatable, and
credible as they are based on experiences, opinions and genuine evaluations of the
product/service.

Consumers joining the brand community on social media, are often influenced by the
information provided by others and also, influence other users, which leads to the creation of
brand awareness and reinforcement of brand itself. A powerful brand community result in firm
brand loyalty and engagement.

Now, how social media can have an impact on consumer decision and purchase
behavior?

Studies have also proved that when consumers are considering the brands they want to
purchase from, their close social network significantly influence their choices since. Hence,
when their close social network are physically out of reach, connect through social media helps
in strengthening their bond and in addition, access to their networks’ statements and
viewpoints posted online has a great influence on their perception and awareness of the brand/
product/services as well as purchase intention.

Most of the Consumer created information on Social Media are considered genuine, reliable,
and valuable as they are very personal and can differ from others. Some are emotional,
subjective without logical arguments while others are clear, specific and reasonable.
Research has found out that
Higher information quality is due to higher consumer satisfactory experience leading to
increase in the purchase intention.
Increase in information quantity represents popularity, importance and higher sales
volume leading to increase in purchase intention as well.

Methodology

Here is the conceptual framework, purchase intention is a dependent variable and 3

independent variables are namely EWOM, Social Value, and Brand Loyalty.
E-WOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) refers to the inter-consumer communication where users
exchange products, services, or brand-related information, experiences, and opinions to
influence other users and their purchasing behavior in the virtual social world. Studies show
that E-WOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) can be driven by two main factors namely, EWOM
driven by Innovativeness and EWOM driven by Tie Strength.

2. Social Value
Social Value is the degree to which a person finds a product or a service useful on the basis of
its ability to augment their social well-being.

3. Brand Loyalty
Brand Loyalty refers to the feeling of a consumer where they have strong attachment and
support towards a brand.

Purchase Intention refers to a consumer’s personal reasoning and consideration after making a
general evaluation regarding products and services which has an effect on the consumer’s
likelihood of getting involved in purchase behavior. [

The factors for each independent variables are chosen based on the previous studies:

E-WOM (Electronic Word of Mouth) is majorly driven by two main factors namely, EWOM
driven by Innovativeness and EWOM driven by Tie Strength.

Social Value is considered to be based on two elements namely Social self-image expression
and Social relationship support.

Two separate levels of Brand Loyalty are –Emotional/Behavioral Loyalty and Cognitive Loyalty.

The method involved two-phase survey questionnaire. A measuring scale was adapted and
modified from previous studies and a 3-point Likert scale was used to test the variables. A total
of 115 respondents participated in the study and the data was analyzed using google sheets.

Result and Analysis

From the demographic data gathered, the characteristics of the respondents show that a)
74.8% were young consumers b) Most of the respondents were from India. c) 77.6% preferred
the Social Media type “Video Hosting Platforms” to learn and communicate about products and
services. d) 62% of users preferred the Social Media feature as “Reviews and Ratings” to engage
in E-WOM related to shopping, products, and services. e) 71.4% of the respondents preferred
to buy “Fashion/Accessories” using an online medium. f) 69.2% preferred to connect with the
brand by “learning about the brand from other’s experience” on Social Media.
The results from the first phase of the survey indicated the following things:
1. Young consumers (66.7%) including Teens and Youth in general have the most purchase
satisfaction after using Social Media features in comparison with other age groups.
2. Teen users (83.3%) have the highest degree of trust on Social Media E-WOM to make
purchase decisions in comparison with other age groups
3. Teen users (88.9%) have the highest degree of tendency to recommend others on Social
Media regarding purchase-related decisions in comparison with other age groups.
4. Teen users (96.3%) have the highest degree of Tie Strength in comparison with other age
groups.
5. Mostly Teens and Youth behave similarly when it comes to making purchase-related
decisions as they get the most influenced by Social Media EWOM.

The results from the second phase of the survey indicated the following things:
1. Young Adults (25%) have the lowest purchase satisfaction and social value when compared to
other age groups while Middle-Aged consumers (83.3%) have the most purchase satisfaction
followed by Youth (61.5%).
2. Young consumers do not indicate prominently that they have a high degree of Social Value
on Social Media in the context of purchase related decisions
3. Youth (83.3%) have the highest degree of Brand Loyalty on Social Media when it comes to
making purchase-related decisions.

4. Youth (78%) have the highest degree of Emotional Loyalty as well as a satisfactory purchase
experience on Social Media.
5. Young consumers have the highest degree of Cognitive Loyalty as well as a satisfactory
purchase experience on Social Media.
6. Teens seem to be least influenced by Social Values on Social Media.

In conclusion, this study was set forth to understand the influence of Social Media Network on the
purchase behavior of young consumers between the ages of 13-25. Some key points identified
understood from this study are:
1. Most of the Innovative users are young consumers who engaged in Social Media EWOM for
purchase-related decisions and have satisfactory purchase experience after using Social Media
features.
2. Both Teens and Youth get more influenced by EWOM driven by tie strength on Social Media in
comparison with other age groups and have satisfactory purchase experience after using Social
Media features.
3. This data observed from this study shows that Teens do not have a high degree of Social Self
Image Expression on the other hand Teens having low degree of Social Self Image Expression
experienced purchase satisfaction after using Social Media features. On the other hand, Youth seems
to have a higher degree of Social Self Image Expression as well as have satisfactory purchase
experience using Social Media features in comparison with others.
4. Even though young consumers (both Teens and Youth) in general have a low degree of Social
Relationship Support, but still they experienced purchase satisfaction using Social Media features
5. In general, Youth have a high degree of Emotional Loyalty and none of the youth respondents in
the study showed a low degree of Emotional Loyalty.
6. None of the Youth in this study showed a low degree of Cognitive Loyalty and the majority of
Young consumers along with other age groups who had satisfactory purchasing experience using
social media features had a high degree of Cognitive Loyalty.

5.2 Future scope of work

The future work of this study can involve:

1) A Larger sample size of respondents in order to obtain more reliable and consistent data. More
exploration of the purchase behavior can be done by studying the impact of independent variables on
a specific gender of young consumers on social media.

2) More research on the independent variable Social Value needs to be done or a more suitable
Independent variable can be selected instead of it. Studies can be done on the relationship between
Social Value and EWOM in the influence of social media to understand consumer behavior more.
41
3) Examination of how purchase behavior can get affected based on the relationship between
consumer’s attitudes/beliefs towards a brand and brand loyalty based on cognitive & emotional
factors on social media.

4) Survey questionnaires with Likert scale having greater points (4, 5, or 7) integrated with stimulus-
based experiments, face to face interviews can be used. The reliability and validity of measures used
in this study can be improved more.

Consumer behavior is the study of a consumer’s emotions, attitude and preference associated with
utility, disposal and purchase of a product or services.

Why Email is not a social media?

1) No real time engagement
2) No social media feed, more private
3) Not able to express mood by likes and reactions
4) See the comments being typed in real time, questions being answered in real time

Let’s understand what a brand community is! It refers to the brand admirers who are non-
geographically bound, have similar interests, and connect with each other to form a social
connection.
and the 5 major stages recognized are ‘Recognition of the Need’, ‘Search for Information,
‘Evaluation of Alternatives’, ‘Making Decision’ and ‘Evaluation regarding Post-Purchase
Decisions”. Social Media provides a chance for users to engage with the brand and other
potential consumers and helps in building a significant meaningful relationships.

Innovativeness
Innovativeness is a characteristic attribute of a person that represents his personality towards
innovation. High level of Innovativeness are more likely to search for information, test new
technology, feel motivated to use new products/services, and are willing to share their findings
with others.
Tie Strength
Tie Strength refers to the influential strength of the bond between members of a network due
to the familiarity between the information receiver and the sender. It’s measured by the
interaction frequency, affection involvement, intimacy exchange, and reciprocation. Strong-tie
offers a more credible exchange of information and it leads to an increase of interest in
information communication and dissemination between consumers.
i. Social self-image expression
Social self-image expression is referred to as the degree to which a person finds a
product/service to enhance one’s own image in other’s viewpoints.

ii. Social relationship support

Social relationship support is referred to as the degree to which a person finds a

product/service to help in the formation, reinforcement, and nourishment of interpersonal
connections.
A measuring scale was adapted and modified from previous studies and a 3-point Likert scale
was used to test the variables. A total of 115 respondents participated in the study and the data
was analyzed using google sheets.

I Emotional Loyalty refers to a psychological preference where a consumer has positive feelings
and attachment towards a particular brand which leads to frequent purchases and
commitments to repurchase products or services.
ii. Cognitive Loyalty

Cognitive Loyalty refers to a psychological preference where a consumer has positive beliefs
and thoughts regarding repurchase and often is the consumer’s very first choice during
purchasing decisions.