A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN GROWING CUSTOMERS AWARENESS AND PREFERENCE FOR BITI’S HUNTER PRODUCTS By Student: Vu Nguyen Hai My ID: 2124793 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of BSc (Hons) Business Management COHORT 16 BOLTON BUSINESS SCHOOL The University of Bolton Date: May 01st 2023 ABSTRACT Purpose - The study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of social media in increasing customer awareness and preference for Biti‘s Hunter, an outstanding product line of Biti‘s Footwear. This research helps Biti‘s gain insights into how to better engage with customers and stay competitive by leveraging social media's impact. Methodology - The study applied a quantitative research approach and gathered data from 200 customers through a structured questionnaire to assess their awareness and preferences for Biti's Hunter products. The collected data were then analyzed using the statistical software SPSS to determine the effectiveness of social media and other relevant indicators.
Findings - The study's findings indicated that Biti's Hunter use of social media to promote its products and engage with customers positively correlated with customer awareness and preference. These findings provide actionable insights into customer engagement and preferences and may inform future marketing strategies for Biti's Footwear. Contribution - Using this study, Biti's Hunter can evaluate its social media activities and gain insights into leveraging social media to improve marketing strategies, increase its customer base, and ultimately grow its business. Furthermore, the research helps Biti's to enhance customer awareness and preferences.
Keywords: Social Media; Customer Awareness; Customer Preference; Biti‘s; Biti‘s Hunter ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. David Ratcliffe, Dr. Anupam Mazumdar, and Ms. Pham Thi Tuyet Trinh, who generously provided knowledge and expertise, as well as invaluable patience and feedback to help me complete this dissertation.
I am also grateful to the University of Bolton and the University of Banking for providing a professional and motivating environment to help me complete this dissertation. Thanks should also go to the respondents who took the time to answer my research survey. I am truly grateful for your participation and assistance in helping me gain more data and insights. Lastly, I should mention my family for their constant source of encouragement.
Their support and cherishing have kept my spirits and motivation high during this process. Table of Contents ABSTRACT. 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. 6 LIST OF FIGURES.
ABOUT BITI‘S HUNTER. 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN MODERN MARKETING. SOCIAL MEDIA IN VIETNAM.
CUSTOMER AWARENESS CONCEPT. THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER AWARENESS IN MARKETING. CUSTOMER PREFERENCE CONCEPT. THE ROLE OF CUSTOMER PREFERENCE IN MARKETING.
DATA COLLECTION TECHNIQUE. 33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS. 37 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. 84 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS SPSS : Statistical Product and Service Solutions FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions KOLs : Key Opinion leaders CRM : Customer Relationship Management LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The Zones of Social Media……………………………………………………….
7 Figure 2: Conceptual model…………………………………………………………………. 19 Figure 3: The Research Onion……………………………………………………………… 25 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND In today's globalized world, changes in the external environment have prompted marketers to adopt social media as a new and effective communication tool (Toros and Kalpaklioglu, 2011). The phrase ―social media‖ refers to new types of media that allow for interaction.
The way people interact has entirely changed; it has become simpler for customers to share their opinions about goods, services, and businesses online (Gashi and Ahmeti, 2021). In reality, during the past few decades, the growth of mobile technologies has driven the use of social media. In January 2023, there were 5.16 billion internet users worldwide, of which 4.76 billion were active on social media (We Are Social and Melwater, 2023). Today, Facebook and Instagram are the two most famous social media platforms for marketing products, maintaining customers relationship, informing news and expanding audiences.
Vietnam has also witnessed a significant development of social media, with diverse businesses embracing this trend. Social media have become a huge opportunity for companies being closer to their customers to serve them more efficiently(Fischer et al. In Vietnam, Biti's, a pioneer brand in the footwear industry, has positioned itself as a top player by updating its designs to keep up with global fashion trends in sport's shoes. Along with that, Biti's marketing strategies focus on social media, one of the most effective marketing tools nowadays.
1 In this study, the role of social media as a new trend in marketing will be explored more deeply to raise customer awareness and preference in a company‘s brand. Therefore, the topic ―A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN GROWING CUSTOMERS AWARENESS AND PREFERENCE FOR BITI‘S HUNTER PRODUCTS‖ has been selected. ABOUT BITI’S Binh Tien Consumer Goods Manufacturing Limited Company is known by the abbreviation Biti's. Biti's is a Vietnam-based company that produces shoes and sandals.
Biti's began as a modest production plant in 1982 and has expanded with the nation to become a trusted and well-known brand among consumers. Biti's is regarded as the national pride of Vietnam and is known as a "National Brand" for quality and prestigious footwear. The business was a pioneer in exporting to international markets. Biti's has marked its trademark in 40 countries worldwide, such as Japan, Russia, Italy, France, Mexico, the UK, the USA, and South America….In addition, Biti's is also trusted by international customers with famous brands such as Clarks, Decathlon, Speedo, Skechers, and Lotto to become a processing partner with many large value orders (Biti‘s, 2022).
Since 2017, Biti's has established itself as a prominent national brand in the minds of consumers. Over the years, the company has earned the recognition for its excellence in media and advertising. The brand achieved over 20 awards throughout the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, such as Google and MMA (Biti‘s, 2022). ABOUT BITI‘S HUNTER With their traditional shoes and sandal versions, Biti's dominated the domestic market in the 1980s.
However, Biti's faced the risk of losing market share as the Vietnamese economy gradually became more open to the entry of foreign companies. Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2012) has now turned to favor sneakers from international brands. Today's shoes facilitate mobility and represent youth culture's sense of style and ego. If it keeps concentrating on traditional shoes and sandals, Biti's will eventually lose its connection to them and the following generations.
In addition, customers in this segment also do not want to use counterfeit goods, but at the same time are not willing to spend a large investment on footwear. Drawing from the above factors, Biti‘s realizes that the Vietnamese market is still scarce for locally produced sneakers with reasonable prices, high quality, and trendy designs. That's why Biti's Hunter was born with a message Products for brave ―hunters‖ who constantly go to experience and expand the world. The Biti's Hunter sneaker line launched in the second half of 2016.
In 2017, Biti‘s Hunter had been on the market for about nine months, but the level of consumer awareness was really low. Thanks to an innovative promotional campaign featuring KOLs, and influencers, for example, Son Tung MTP music video ―Lac Troi,‖ and Soobin Hoang Son and Tien Cookie for their ―Di De Tro Ve‖ music video, Biti‘s Hunter hit the target customers and the message spread. These campaigns have created a great craze in the youth community and continuously sold out as soon as it is on the market. 3 In short, by introducing new product lines like the Hunter and launching innovative marketing campaigns featuring popular celebrities such as Son Tung MTP and Soobin Hoang Son, Biti's has established itself as a source of pride among Vietnamese footwear brands.
For Biti's to continuously make breakthroughs in the footwear industry both domestically and internationally, it is crucial for the company to have a superior marketing strategy that effectively targets social media users, especially young people, starting with building awareness of its products to impact customer preferences. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To conduct a critical literature review of Social Media. To determine the current level of customer awareness of Biti‘s Hunter products. To investigate the influence of social media on customers‘ awareness of Biti‘s Hunter products.
To assess the impact of social media on customers‘ preference towards Biti‘s Hunter products. To measure the effectiveness of social media platforms in promoting Biti‘s Hunter products. 4 To recommend marketing strategy directions and best practices that can be used to increase customers' awareness and preference for Biti‘s Hunter products. RESEARCH METHOD The research method employed in this study involved quantitative data collection.
An online questionnaire survey was sent to a randomly selected sample of 200 individuals who may or may not be familiar with Biti's Hunter brands and its social media activities. The use of randomization in selecting the sample helps to ensure that the results are representative of the broader population of interest. THESIS STRUCTURE There are five chapters: - Chapter 1: Introduction - Chapter 2: Literature review - Chapter 3: Methodology - Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis - Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. SOCIAL MEDIA Communication between organizations, communities, and individuals has undeniably undergone significant and pervasive alterations due to social media (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).
Because it allows businesses and customers to interact in ways that traditional media cannot. Social media has become an integral aspect of daily life. Interaction via different platforms, such as social networking sites (e., Facebook), microblogging sites (e., Twitter), and content communities (e., YouTube), enable such connection by allowing social networks to be built around common interests and beliefs (Larimo and Leonidou, 2021). However, social media is not only a fun way to communicate but also a vital aspect of corporate marketing tactics (Rugova and Prenaj, 2016).
Social media is a tool used by large and small organizations and commercial and non-profit organizations to generate awareness about goods and services (Umair Manzoor et al. Social media consists of two terms: social and media. According to Kietzmann et al. (2011), social refers to friendly companionship or relationship also define media as a communication forum, which includes newspapers, television, magazines, and so forth, which aims to reach a wider audience.
Therefore, the communication channel can be a social instrument for improving communication (Correa et al. Furthermore, it can be a forum for distributing and discussing information among people (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). In addition, social media can be characterized as many new online 6 information sources that consumers have developed, formulated, and used to educate one another about goods, services, brands, and issues (Blackshaw and Nazzaro, 2004). The Zones of Social Media Source: Tuten and Solomon, 2021 According to Tuten and Solomon (2021), social media bridges the gap between mass and personal media, enabling individuals to communicate with an endless number of people at any time.
Their research shows similar channels are categorized into four within a narrow area due to the rise of various social channels and vehicles. Figure 1 indicates four social media zones: social community, social publishing, social commerce, and social entertainment (Tuten and Solomon, 2021). 7 Zone 1: Social communities refer to social media platforms striving to improve relationships and interaction between people with common interests or backgrounds. Users of the internet primarily engage in conversing, sharing, and socializing.
Some of the most well-known social networks include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin. Zone 2: Social publishing is the production and dissemination of material on social media platforms such as blogs (Tumblr, Blogger), media-sharing platforms (Instagram, Flickr), music and audio-sharing platforms (Soundcloud), and presentation platforms (SlideShare, Scribd). Commercial and editorial content creation are the main activities and user-generated. Zone 3: Social entertainment encompasses channels and vehicles that offer customers the opportunities to play and entertain themselves.
Social media platforms like Spotify and Tiktok, as well as multi-zone online networks like Instagram and YouTube, are integrated to support this zone (Tuten and Solomon, 2021).