An investigation of how the Beauty Industry can effectively use Social Media as a communication tool to influence customer purchases.

ABSTRACT

Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have evolved rapidly in recent years. Therefore, they have become part of the majority of the human populations’ day life. This acceleration in social media growth has faced many hurdles as it faced difficulties through rejection and many human cultures worldwide. The use of these social media platforms in the marketing industries has led to many studies. This is because they are being observed and viewed as modes of interferences in the physical purchase and buying of luxurious commodities such as beauty products; customers and many clients now prefer doing their shopping online at the comfort of their homes rather than spending much time going to the shops physically to buy the commodities of their choice, they have the alternative of making their choices through the social media networks, place the orders and get the goods delivered to them at their homes.

This study aims to give insights and shed light on how these social media networks affect the beauty industry. Eventually, this study provides enough evidence of the effective use of social media networks in the beauty industries. It gives insights into how using these social media networks, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, leads to increased sales, buying level of the customers and clients, and customer retention. This research concludes the best ways entrepreneurs can use to adapt communication design through social media networks effectively.

 

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Social media has made many changes in the world of late. It connects many people all over the universe. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Imo, WhatsApp, We Chat, Tik-Tok, YouTube, and online websites such as Google, Microsoft, Bing, and yahoo have increased in past years (Adams, J., Kahn, H. & Raeside, R. 2014). These platforms are now considered as part of human lives.

The emergence of social media networks as a mode of communication has brought many impacts not only to the regular people who use them for fun but also for business owners who have converted these platforms as advertisement grounds for their customers. This has helped them reduce advertising costs (Jones, G. 2010). Through social media networks, they reach a large population of intended customers. Globally, various organizations and governments use these social media networks to communicate and get their citizens.

This dissertation will investigate the efforts and effects of social media networks on the business communities’ sales and purchases about their followers’ number (Lee, W, Cheng, S, & Shih, Y. 2017). This study will focus on a section of Texan females and categorically put more effort into using social media networks for businesses in the beauty industry. These businesses will be included: cosmetic shops, beauty parlors, salons, and barbershops.

 

CHAPTER 2; THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH AND

FOCUS.

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

The marketing industry has faced considerable growth over the past years, which has been due to the increasing world’s access to the website of the 20^th century. Currently, most business owners prefer online activities in physical activities (McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase, 2017). The traditional marketing strategies, such as broadcasting campaigns, fliers, and printed advertisements, have been outplayed through online platforms (Cawsey, T. & Rowley, J. 2016). These online methods of doing business allow entrepreneurs to keep track of their customers and clients. This communication mode also enables them to analyze the type of audience (customers and clients). These strategies allow the business owners to save much money in terms of expenses as they use less capital during advertisement or product or service promotion.

To keep a good portfolio of their businesses, the entrepreneurs use offline and online communication modes to maintain a highly competitive profile in the market atmosphere (Cawsey, T. & Rowley, J. 2016). Much effort should be made to reach each customer or client in his/her virtual environment of choice. Social Media offers the most comprehensive and leading online platform, where many business communities come to their clients (McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase, 2017). Social media is defined as the online services through which the population, the customers and clients, can communicate with one another to engage, minister, and share their ideas and content.

The investigation and research on using social media networks to raise the rate of sales in a business setup have been a subject of discussion for a very long time now (Dahlgren, S. 2011). These media platforms are used to determine and exploit their customers’ conduct, enabling them to gauge their sales and purchase levels. This study will investigate reports done by publishers and other researchers, and this will provide us with the draft of what is required of this study/dissertation as the effects impact on the businesses through the use of social media networks (Louis, D., Lombart, C. 2010), on the purchase level of commodities and the Influence of these media networks on the decisions made by the customers and clients.

This chapter will explore the beauty and social media to determine their connections and impacts on the business. The effects of social media use will be given priority as it is the main subject of discussion in this study (Consumer Barometer, 2017). An insight into how companies can use social media platforms to boost their rate of sales and purchase level of beauty products by Texan females will be investigated and recommendations drawn for future references and to build scope for future studies (Apuke, O.D. 2017). The communication between individual people forms the most extensive mode of communication in the community; therefore, the use of social media enables clear, more straightforward, and frequent way of contact for people within different geographical locations,  culture, race, and from different time zones, this is made possible by (Atwood, M, & Morosan, C. 2015),  the invention of the wireless network connections that have been made cheap and available to the users by their providers, social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snap chat, each of these media platforms pleases their users by providing enticing them with contents that make them visit these sites them more often, for instance, Snapchat have the options of uploading photos, these enable the users as well as entrepreneurs (Arvidsson A., & Caliandro, A. 2015),  to share pictures as well as contents of their products, this helps the business owners to reach their customers more quickly and directly as compared to searching and going to them physically.

2.2 Texan females

The United States Central Statistics Office statistics indicate that 70% of the beauty industries use social media platforms to reach their customers and customers. This study was done in 2018, where 25% of these businesses recorded higher proportions than the European Union in the same period (C.S.O., 2017). A comparison of the various studies showed that this was the highest rate of social media network use, as seen in the Texan beauty industries in their connection with their customers and clients on their online grounds. Referring to this example of study, this study will determine the effects of social media on the business and the Texan females’ buying capacity.

This demographic data shows that 90% of the Texan businesses interviewed by the Marketing Institute of Texas in 2018 use social media to boost their businesses (MII, 2017). The study found that the Texan beauty industries have grown in recent years by using social media to improve the scale of their sales and purchase level. Another research done by (SERMO Influencer Index, 2017) correlated social media use on the customers’ purchase level and sales rate. This helped them increase the speed of their sales.

2.3 Products from Beauty Industry.

This dissertation mainly focuses on the beauty industry and social media. However, these beauty industries comprise cosmetics shops, saloons, barbershops, beauty therapy shops, manicure, and pedicure shops. A study done by The State of Beauty in the year 2018 showed that these beauty industries are made of complex requirements that are led by each customer and client’s needs. This diversity includes all other beauty shop services, including hygiene services, skincare, perfume, and skin care services.

This industry pays focus majorly on its customers’ physical appearance and health statuses (Jones, 2010). When correctly offered, these services boost beauty and, thus, the customer’s arrival (Ertekin, 2016). Many customers are drawn to the specific shop or center, which leads to customers’ frequent flow, thus generating millions of revenues to the company through sales and offering of quality services. These customers and the business owners post their experiences on the social media platforms where other new customers who follow them are always convinced of the quality of the products and the services offered, enabling the business to have much more sales.

The social identity inspires the formation of a unique person’s unique appearance, making an individual accept himself or herself (Kim et al., 2013). Due to the frequent use of social media platforms, these results inspire business owners to realize the ideal meaning of beauty and people’s views concerning a person’s physical attraction to others. This is achieved through the use of online pictures and publications. This communication mode has increased the publicity of the beauty brands released to the market by a particular company. Therefore, this dissertation will try to find out why Texan females like to buy their beauty products online rather than going to the shop physically.

2.4 Social media networks.

2.4.1 The marketability of Social media.

While examining the effects of social media on businesses, it is essential to identify how these industries have incorporated social media use and gained the prowess of influencing their customers and clients to follow them online (McCay-Peet and Quan-Haase 2017). This study will also determine how these entrepreneurs have managed to mine new clients and customers through these online platforms. However, this information will try to undermine the offline modes of doing business within this industry due to the impacts made by the social media platforms.

Globally, there over 4 billion active online users, with a higher percentage of 80% of them usually on the social network sites (Statistica, 2018), 765 of the Texan females were found that were using social network sites primarily for buying goods and services, this was according to a study done by (C.S.O., 2017). This online webpage usage for shopping was discovered that social media for online shopping was the third widespread known use of these platforms.

The increasing use of social media has powered the popularity of beauty industry products (Rizomyliotis et al., 2017). This has been a success due to the increase in the number of followers of these industries and the already existing customers’ reputation. Many theories explain why most customers and clients are being mined online than offline (Smith, C. & Shaw, D. 2011). However, the most critical aspect is the impacts made by these social media on the businesses and customers’ buying decisions. Here is some of the importance of using social media by the buyers; they have a free and direct link to engage with other buyers and sellers. These platforms enable these characters to connect globally (Guo and Li, 2016). These people have the privilege of interacting with each other through online networks (Wallace Buil and de Chernatony, 2014). According to research done by (Hur et al., 2011), these global online users have the leverage of identifying themselves to each other. They have full freedom of expressing themselves to one another.

According to (Cawsey T. & Rowley, J. 2016), corporate social media use ensures a company’s success if effectively used; therefore, the entrepreneurs should maximize their benefit to engage with their client’s customers directly. Beauty industries draw many profits from the use of social media networks as they can reach directly to their clients and customers; these customers, on the other hand, benefits from these social media networks by direct access to the business owners; this enables both parties to build trust on one another (Song, S. And Yoo, M., 2016). Therefore, they can share ideas, experiences, demonstrate each one’s interest and display a personal view concerning a product or service offered by a specific industry or company.

The data drawn from these social media platforms helps the business owners to analyze their market scope and reputation (Stellar, 2017). These data are obtained from these platforms in terms of comments and posts made by respective clients and customers on their walls or the company webpage. These data consequently increase the publicity of the beauty brands that are manufactured by these companies.

However, these online platforms have exposed many teenagers to privacy issues, sexting problems, and fear (O’Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011). These online platforms have also led to an increase in cyberbullying and peer harassment among youths. These platforms also give the users the leverage of appearing as superheroes or villains in the virtual environments, which eventually affects youths’ behavior and other online users (Lee, W, Cheng, S, & Shih, Y. 2017). These insights are essential elements to pay attention to as they may form several ways some business owners can use to manipulate their followers, luring them to traps that they could not run away from. This also helps us identify ways in which business owners can use social media to convince their followers and customers to buy their products.

 

 

2.4.2 The Influence of Social media.

After investigating why social media platforms are becoming more popular by the day, it is essential to focus on how this impacts the business sector. This study aims to establish how these social media networks affect the purchase level of Texan females. This study also discusses how business owners use social media platforms to lure and influence their customers to buy their commodities (Orzan et al., 2016). Some highlights on social media users’ behaviors and attitudes have been looked into in this study. It also looks into how these media platforms have positively influenced Texan females, which is evident in the survey (Duffet, 2017). It was also observed that the majority of online users who have positive replies on the posts concerning beauty brands are made mostly by the female genders. These comments come from the advertisement posts made continuously by these entrepreneurs while marketing their products online.

The effects of the social media platforms on businesses have resulted in several aspects in this study, including the following: customer loyalties, the establishment of beauty products or brands, word of mouth, and eWOM (Hudson et al., 2015). These factors have been discussed as follows.

2.5 Customer Loyalties.

This refers to some customers’ and clients’ buying behavior concerning a specific beauty shop item. This also serves as positive feedback to the sellers about their brands on the display. A study by (Solomon et al., 2013) states that brand refers to the scenario whereby a buyer consistently buys the same products over a long time; this habit helps in increasing the value of a product in the market, thus enabling the business owners to lure and convince new buyers to buy the same effect; as a result, the sale’s rate of such like products increases in the market thus bringing more profit to the owners or sellers (Orzan et al., 2016), this is attributed by the constant engagement between the sellers of these products and the buyers through the online platforms. It was found out that more customers are pleased with the sellers that frequently talk to them about the available products in the market. Consequently, it helps the entrepreneurs to put more effort into their sales (Dahlgren, 2011). When we use quantitative survey methodology (Malar et al., 2011), we found out that the theory of beauty products matches each buyer’s needs.

This is ideal for this study as it focuses on how the sellers meet their customers’ desires. On the other hand, beauty products should stay loyal irrespective of the changes in the market scope. This allows the product followers to enjoy the feeling of appreciated by the industry, and they feel attached to the industry and the product of their choice (Muniz and O’Guinn, 2010). This is achieved through the use of social media platforms.

2.6 eWOM and Word of Mouth.

These refer to the forms of communication between individual persons, and it is always regarded as the considerable Influence that people have concerning the products of their interest (Thoumrungroje, 2014). eWOM refers to electronic word of mouth, and it is the mode of communication that takes place through online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, or YouTube. This form of communication helps business owners to influence their followers to buy their brands online. This context is essential to this dissertation as it is used to motivate customers and new clients to buy their products.  An assessment made by (Lee et al., 2017) confirms that the Word Of Mouth is used to influence customers to purchase items in a shop. In this dissertation, two instances of eWOM have been discussed, as shown below: W.O.M. is used as a marketing method to increase customers’ buying ratio. Secondly, having a strong understanding of beauty products helps marketers influence their followers through online platforms.

2.7 The establishment of Beauty Brands.

These brands always establish themselves through online platforms’ followers (Hung and Lin, 2015). This forms an outlined online relationship that presents a gathering of the products. These enthusiasms encourage a good relationship between the brands and the customers. The establishment of a communal brand enables the business owners to defend their brands and ignore the weaknesses posed by the social media platforms, and this is evident in a study that was done by (Hassan and Casalo Arino, 2016), where Facebook was found to be used to defend beauty brands; consequently, this encouraged more buyers to purchase products from these companies.

2.8 Buyers acquisitions.

This can be described through the use of purchase intent, where the buyer’s Decision is monitored. To achieve this, the following steps are followed to figure out consumer intentions through social media platforms.

The steps include the following:

1. The identification of critical needs and associated problems.

The buyer’s mood always controls this stage, as they determine the frequency of access of these customers to the buying sites (Solomon et al., 2013). For these products to achieve maximum sales through social media platforms, much research should be done, and this entails frequent engagement the customers daily.

1. The frequent search for relevant information.

This is where the customers make a firm decision on whether to buy a commodity or not, and this step involves the individual view on every product being advertised and the information being displayed on these sites (Kotler and Keller, 2012). This step represents the stage where all the uncertainties resulting from the customer’s purchasing decisions are being investigated. This is the step where this dissertation looks into the products’ influences from the beauty companies. It examines the reasons that trigger the buyers to dig into the social media networks to find out about a particular product.

1. The Evaluation of other Alternatives.

This step has various complexities concerning the prices involved by a particular product (Lee et al., 2017). Lee’s survey shows that the sharing of information through word of mouth also influences customer choices. Online questionnaires do not have any substantial influence on the product messages by the customers.

1. Buying process.

 This refers to the decisions made by the customers to purchase a particular product in a beauty shop. Sellers should understand that customers’ online environment determines whether the client will buy your product or not (Kotler and Keller, 2012). Factors such as the unavailability of an effect on the shelves due to completion or out of stock also influence the buying habits. If a commodity is out of stock, then the buyer will restrain from social media platforms.

1. Evaluation of the Customer after buying a commodity through Social media platforms.

This step focuses on the satisfaction rate of the customer after buying a commodity online. If the customer remains loyal to the seller and orders some more items or services, it indicates that the customer was pleased with the services that he/she was offered (Jones, G. 2010). Continuous engagement between the customer and the sellers entices other new buyers to buy the same product or buy their preferred products from the same shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH AIM

According to (Kothari 2014), research aims refer to an investigation’s outcomes to find out some hidden information or undiscovered facts. This study aims to discover the facts concerning the buying decision-making process among Texan females through social media and social media networks’ role in Texan females’ purchasing habits on beauty products. Eventually, this study intends to provide data that can be used by the beauty industries to reach Texan females as these are the main customers of the beauty products.

3.1 Research Questions.

1. Investigate the relationship between customer loyalty and the product on social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.
2. To assess the effects of the contents posted on social media on the number of followers.
3. To find out why Texan females like purchasing their beauty products through online platforms.

3.2 Research Objectives.

1. To collect the relevant data on social media platforms’ usage by beauty industries and the female population.
2. To find a variety of beauty products that have many followers on online platforms such as Instagram.
3. To find out the most liked content on the social media platforms.
4. To draw a good understanding of why beauty products have a lot of online followers.

 

 

3.3 Hypotheses.

1. There is a reputable relationship between beauty products and Texan females.
2. There are an online engagement and healthy relationship between the customers and the beauty industry owners.
3. Social media assist business owners that sell beauty products to make much profit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This section aims to detail the research design, basic assumptions, and e theoretical frameworks applied during this research. Quantitative frameworks and ethical considerations emerging from the study and how data was collected are also discussed.

4.1 Philosophical framework

Research philosophy can be defined as a set of beliefs and assumptions about the developmental process of knowledge (Sanders, 2015). These beliefs and assumptions modify and shape the research design methodology and interpret the results (Bryman, 2016). In this research, positivism is used as the driving philosophical tool towards realizing and justifying this research’s objectives and findings.

As a scientific research tool, positivism suggests that the social world could be understood objectively, unlike interpretivism, which offers a subjective treatment. Positivism was ideal in this study since the research aimed to collect quantitative data based on the hypotheses developed from theoretical evidence to test its authenticity and validity (Sanders, 2015). The investigation has also subjected the findings to statistical analysis as it is concerned mainly with objectives and value-free explanations to come up with valid recommendations.

A significant setback to this philosophy to this study is that it does not take into account human complexities such as emotions and feelings (Bryman-Johnson, 2018). This makes it difficult to get reliable results.

 

 

• Research design
  • The approach

A research approach looks into how the research was conducted and the step-to-step development of data, hence developing a relationship between the theoretical and realistic views (Bryman, 2016). This research used a deductive approach to establish the relationship between consuming cosmetic goods in the classical market and the quantitative data collected during the study. The deduction process starts from the existing theory, which leads to the development of the hypotheses. This prompts data collection, which, when subjected to an analytic tool, led to new findings. With the results, this report will establish whether the hypotheses are confirmed or rejected. The process will then end with revising the theory if the idea is approved.

Quantitative research is often used in business and always employs the deductive approach to establish hypotheses. The inductive married well in this project with the positivist’s philosophy as both involved generalizations that will be inferred in the findings using a quantitative rather than a qualitative data approach (Rahman, 2017). Therefore, the research’s value has a positive effect on the reliability of a study’s results and conclusions

4.2.2 Purpose

For the sake of the investigation, a descriptive purpose was used to paint a picture of how the beauty industry could use social media as a tool to increase purchases (Ivey, 2016). This allowed the research to bring out the problem affecting cosmetics’ marketing, how it occurs, and what could be done to create a lasting positive impact on the findings.

• The research instruments.

• Computer
• Google forms
• Likert scale
• Cosmetic items
• Likert scale
• Questionnaires
  • Sampling

Online questionnaires were formulated on google forms using a computer. The links to the google forms were then sent to the participants to fill in. a total of 100 participants were used. The selection of the participants was subject to availability and accessibility, especially to an internet source.  The questionnaires were designed to ensure that participants give truthful information and answer all the questions before submission. Upon submission, the data were processed and subjected to analytic tools.

Some questionnaires were formulated to give further specifications on why people engage and build a lasting relationship with a specific cosmetic brand on the internet. To measure brand trust, two items were selected from Habib, and another thing was taken from Laroche. To measure brand loyalty, two items were taken from Chaudhuri and Holbrook and another from Salome. To measure customer brand engagement, five things were taken from Hollebreek (Kumar, 2014). The measurements of the selected articles were subjected to the five-point Likert scale. In the Likert scale, the smallest point value 1 represents ‘strongly disagree’ while the largest unit, 5, means’ strongly agree.’ This allowed the participants to rate their responses.

 

4.4 Data analysis

Upon submission of data by all the 100 participants, the data was organized and analyzed by the google form analysis tool, excel, and the SPSS analytic tool.  Data was entered from the forms represented numerically in excel datasheets, and frequency polygons were deduced from these sheets. These represent the findings graphically for further analysis and interpretation, as recommended by (Vermez 2017), research done after investigating online customers’ behavior.

Correlation analysis was arrived at after transferring the Excel data to the SPSS toolkit, which was used to establish the relationship between the different scopes of the study and the hypotheses, thus increasing the research findings’ reliability.

4.5 Ethical considerations

Because this research involved human specimens (participants), ethical considerations involving informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and truthfulness were paramount (Blaxter, 2010). To avoid moral shortcomings relating to privacy policy huddles, consent forms were attached to the online questionnaires. These forms outlined the research’s various details and scope, including what their information was being used for.  This was designed in such a way that only those participants who gave consent could access the questionnaires. The use of cosmetic products from the various brands were also subjected to written permission to the producing industries.

 

CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS AND FINDINGS

In this chapter, the results obtained from the filled questionnaires will be analyzed in detail. Frequency diagrams were used to present the data, and the Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the received data.

5.1 Population data

5.1.1 The number of participants.

A total of 100 persons filled the online questionnaires that were made in the form of google forms. Out of this population, 90 were females while 10 were male gender.

Figure 5.1 a graph showing the gender distribution of the participants.

5.1.2 Age distribution of the participants.

When the analysis of the age groups was done, it was found out that 50 participants were in the age group of 15-25 years. They made the highest percentage of the total population that filled the online questionnaires. Thirty respondents were from the 26-40 years age group, while 15 of the participants who answered the questionnaires were from the age group of 41-50 years then. Lastly, 5 participants were in the 51-60 years age group category.

Figure 5.2: A graph showing the age group distribution of the participants.

5.1.3 Frequency of Social media usage among the participants.

The following diagram shows the social media usage trend by the participants. They were requested to fill out the form with the usage frequency options according to their preferences. It was found that most of the youths aged between 15-25 and 26-40 years of age liked using social media platforms daily throughout the day (Yang, C. 2016). The older people aged 51-60 years of age mostly use social media platforms once a week or only when they need to do an activity online, such as shopping or following an event online such as music concerts or prayers.

Figure 5.3: A graph showing the trend in the usage of social media networks by the participants.

From this data, we found out that a higher percentage of the participants use social media platforms regularly in their daily lives. This data supports the theory that social media has become an essential and integral part of humans’ life.

5.2 Choice of Beauty Products.

5.2.1 The products are followed on social media networks.

The respondents were requested to choose and fill out the beauty products that they do follow on the social media platforms. However, they had the opportunity of selecting as many products; this is because not all clients and customers follow only a single product online but a variety as they emerge in the market.

Given these multiple options, kylie cosmetic products were found to have many followers compared to other products, and it had 30 followers. Tarte had ten followers, M.A.C. 15, Fenty 20, Sephora 19, Rimmel 22, Huda beauty had 27 followers, NARS beauty products 25, Charlotte 23, L’oreal 13, glossier 19, Becca had 20 followers’ other products such as; proactive, minerals containing bare, NYX, Sleek, benefit, too faced were found to be followed by 26 respondents.

Figure 5.4: A graph showing the respondents’ choice of products that they follow in social media.

5.2.2 Reasons as to why they follow these products.

When the respondents were asked this question, multiple answers were allowed to collect all the respondents’ views. These respondents’ primary reason was (Yang, C. 2016). They follow the products on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter due to the promotional offers that are always accompanied by the advertisements’ effects.

The following were some of the reasons given by the respondents; 50 respondents said that they follow the products due to the promotional offers attached to the adverts, 45 said that they follow products after being advised by their colleagues or family members, 30 respondents said they follow developments as they are released to the market, 25 follow the trends about a particular product, 15 participants follow the information made about the products, 20 respondents follow the comments and the communication made by the existing users of a specific product. In contrast, 29 participants did not indicate why they follow beauty brands on social media platforms. Lastly, 35 respondents were found to have general reasons to follow beauty products on social media platforms.

Figure 5.5: A graph showing the reasons for following beauty products by the respondents.

 

 

5.3 Modes of communication between the Clients and the sellers.

The majority of the respondents said that they always communicate through liking the posts concerning beauty products. Sixty respondents use this communication mode; 50 send direct text messages to the persons and the organizations who have made the posts. In contrast, 25 of the participants use Hashtags.

5.4 The preferred content about beauty products on social media networks.

A higher percentage of the respondents said that they like content being posted as photos. This gives them a glimpse of the actual product, while some; 30 participants said that they prefer content posted in the form of video clips.

5.5 How these social media platforms influence buyers’ decisions.

The majority of the respondents agreed that they prefer online shopping to be offline/physical shopping; a higher percentage of the participants voted YES for the question; do you feel that social media platforms are useful during the purchase of beauty products?

5.6 Correlation Test.

Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the relationships between customer loyalty, the trust built between the products and the customer, and the loyalty built between the product quality and the customers or clients; their specific reasons determine why they prefer particular products.

This test revealed p < 0.01 in all the parameters between the product quality and customer loyalty. The Pearson value was found to be 0.555, above the threshold value of 0.45 (Vermez, 2017). This shows a direct relationship between the product quality and the number of customers who buy them through social media, which leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis that had been drawn.

The test indicated a positive and direct relationship between the customers’ decisions and the quality of products advertised on social media platforms. This was proved by the correlation value of 0.6, which was above the threshold value of 0. 45 (Vermez, 2017). This direct relationship also nullifies the hypothesis that was indicated at the start of this dissertation.  Eventually, the positive correlation between the customers’ decisions and product loyalty was 0.610 higher than the threshold value of 0.45 (Vermez, 2017). This is a confirmation of the rejection of the above hypotheses. The table below indicates a direct correlation between all the variables as the p-value was found to be 0.01. This is a clear indication of 99% positivity, proving the relationships between the variables under study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

		Trust	Loyalty	Customer decisions
Trust	Pearson correlation
Loyalty	N	100
	Pearson correlation	0.555
	N	0.00
		100	100
	Pearson correlation	0.630	0.630
		0.000	0.00
Customer              decision	N	100	100	100

Figure 5.5; Pearson‘s statistic

 

CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION.

In this chapter, we are going to discuss the results and findings of this research. A comparison of the research questions, objectives, and literature review would be made. This dissertation’s main aim was to investigate how the beauty industry effectively uses social media platforms as communication tools to influence customer purchase choices and decisions.

The data of the most popular beauty products on social media platforms were investigated. This is because it is one of the significant gaps identified from similar studies that have been done in the past. The most popular brands on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, were Kylie cosmetic products, followed by Huda Beauty products. They had the majority of trends on many social media platforms. These trends were a result of having many followers (Ting et al., 2015). These trends eventually led to increased communication between the sellers and the buyers; consequently, these products’ sales rate increased immensely.

A study by (Nisar and Whitehead, 2016) had recorded that the number of beauty products buyers has been having an increasing trend in the number of new customers and clients. This theory has been confirmed through this dissertation. There was a rising daily trend of beauty product followers a day on social media platforms; the most used social media sites, including Instagram, Facebook, Snap Chat, and YouTube. This has enabled a good connection between users of specific products and the sellers, and these buyers share their experiences with new customers who are interested in the same products. This, as a result, promotes the products in question, thus increasing their purchase level.

Research questions were outlined. The first aim was to investigate customer loyalty and the beauty products in social media. This question was drawn to determine social media’s use to increase the relationship between customers and beauty products. This is a gap missing in past studies concerning marketing beauty products through social media platforms. When a client buys a particular product more frequently, this indicates a reputable trust in its creation (Laroche et al., 2014). These results confirm that beauty products serve as a development of customer loyalty; this has been enhanced through social media platforms.

Does the content posted on social media platforms increase the number of followers and the trust built by customers? Yes, this is because most of the respondents indicated that they prefer the contents of the beauty products posted in imagery form or video clips; these increase the transparency between the seller and the buyer. The seller creates a virtual view of the product for the clients to view. These, therefore, increase the number of followers as the sellers have met the demand and the interest of the buyers (Hajli, 2014). Thus, the customers and clients feel valued and appreciated, eventually, a good rapport between the sellers and the buyers. This enables the customers and clients to connect easily with the sellers, 90% of the respondents were found to be using social media platforms regularly daily, and social media have become a crucial part of daily human lives (Pentina et al., 2013). Increasing customer engagement through social media strengthens the relationship between beauty products and customers, enhancing customer loyalty, thus benefiting the beauty product industry.

Fewer studies have been done on understanding customer engagement on social media platforms (Hussein and Hassan, 2017); building customer engagement focuses on the gap made by past studies. This dissertation addresses this by drawing a research question that tries to determine why customers and clients like online engagement with beauty products. These interactions allow the customers to share their experiences concerning a particular beauty product. They do this by uploading pictures and video clips, which are then liked and commented on by other users (Nedra et al., 2018). This consistency confirms the responses given by the respondents who filled the online questionnaires; 50% of them said that they always like the content posted on the social media platforms, with the majority of them preferring the use of Facebook and Instagram. The increasing customer engagement through online media helps the beauty industry owners create more awareness concerning their products using social media platforms (Lima et al., 2019). This serves as an indication of how social media networks have a strong influence on purchasing beauty products.

The correlation tests indicate a direct relationship between all the variables; customer loyalty, customer engagement, and product quality (Allen, 2017). It was found that the use of social media platforms brings about a strong relationship between company owners and their customers and clients. However, using an online questionnaire could not have given exact quantitative data results because those with close-ended questions prevented the respondents from giving responses in their real understanding and view. Therefore, this provides only a clear overview of the customers’ perspectives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SEVEN: STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS

7.1 Limitations  

The primary factor that limited the scope of the study was time. There was a lot to be done within a limited period, thus limiting the research’s depth. The study was also completed by just a single researcher who may affect the span of the analysis presented and may also pose a factor bias of the facts compiled herein. However, this may have an insignificant effect on the findings and the recommendations therein. The sample size used in the research is not an accurate representation of the real world’s real situation. This may present statistical errors in the findings, and the conclusions are drawn herein. However, this problem is brought about by the vastness of the social media networks and platforms available and the vast and diverse numbers of these social pages. The research in its primary self is limited to the Texan females, excluding the other population subsets. As it is only feasible, different groups of women worldwide have different preferences, attitudes, and use of various cosmetic products. Thus these findings may vary from region to region.  Lack of peer reviews on the use of beauty products online, specifically by the Texan women, may have affected the study’s fact pool.

7.2 Strengths

            Despite the above limitations, however, the research received a number of its objectives. To begin with, the study was successful in satisfying the research questions posed at the beginning of the investigation by the use of logic, insight, and analyses of the vast array of the studies on social media businesses on cosmetics to bring into the picture how Texan women relate with cosmetic products online to provide findings that had not been previously reported. The study also uses statistical software like the SPSS software, excel, and Pearson’s correlation system to arrive at the conclusions. This puts a stamp on the validity and reliability of these findings. The data is also easily understood and statistically analyzed to reflect its reality against a wide population range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of social media on the efforts to increase the sales of cosmetic products by both men and women of Texas. The study has used quantitative data to produce quality information about fulfilling the objectives of the research questions. Kylie cosmetic products were found to have the highest followers on social media, particularly on Instagram. They were followed by Huda, NARS, Fenty, NYX, and Rimmel ad a relatively high number of followers from the respondents (Ertekin, S, Muller, R., & Pryor, S. 2016). This explained their high volume of sales and market dominance. This is due to their effective use of appropriate content and mutual dependence on digital marketing. The study also established that people use social media regularly and are always in constant with the products advertised therein. This further demonstrates the overwhelming opportunity in the digital space that the cosmetic industries and the companies could take to increase their sales and market dominance.

Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, among others, have become part and parcel of people’s lives, helping them to acquire knowledge and exposure to different brands; thus, it can be concluded that consumers spend at least a third of their day on social media to satisfy their social and informational needs, promotional offers, advice on practical usage and releases (Nisar-Whitehead, 2016). This has helped bridge the gap in the available literature and the fulfillment of this study’s objectives.

Consumer trust in the brand increased with the consistent use of video content in social media. In support of the study’s findings, this has been suggested to be a valuable tool for increasing sales and effectiveness of the digital market place and increasing consumers’ loyalty to a particular brand. These findings satisfy the first hypothesis showing that an increase in the brand trust will lead to brand loyalty; hence the reputable relationship between beauty products and customers, in this case, the Texan females.

However, the results do not satisfy the second hypothesis. The findings show absolutely no relationship and online engagement between the customers and the beauty industry owners as they care mostly about the product itself and how to find it (Chiou, J.S., Chi-Fen Hsu, A., Hsieh, C. 2013). Nonetheless, the study supported and fulfilled the third hypothesis with the study’s findings, establishing those business owners who sell beauty products with appropriate content make more profits than those that take the least investment into the digital market. The market dominance shows this by Huda and Kylie, who tops online followers’ capacity.

 

 

CHAPTER NINE: RECOMMENDATIONS

This study offers the players of the cosmetic industry valuable insight into what entices Texan women to buy beauty products online and what dissuades them from buying these products, some of which have never been reported before. This is especially the attitude customers have that prompts a successful booking (Voorveld, H, Smit, E, Neijens, P, & Bronner, A. 2016). Thus this study offers ways to be virtually explored by these brands to increase their relationship with customers online, increase their sales, improve brand trust and loyalty as a strategy for developing market dominance, and remain relevant in the market despite the ever-changing and highly competitive business environment. The findings could also help these players understand and know what types of content their customers are looking for and will effectively follow, buy, and recommend their worm networks. This is a sure way to improve trust, loyalty, and therefore active sales of the products. The following recommendations outline the novel ways that beauty brands could use both in Texas and the world over to increase customer relationships and sales to their products;

1. The results of this study show that the use of visual systems like videos is essential to customers. Therefore, cosmetic brands should consider audio-visual outputs in the various social media platforms when marketing their products. This will improve the customer’s taste and preference for the product, thereby increasing trust and loyalty. This translates to high sale volumes and massive profits for the business.
2. The study’s findings suggest that most customers engage with cosmetic products on Instagram and present their communications by liking these posts. Fifty percent wanted these posts to send inquiry messages, and a good percentage would buy them. Therefore, brands should increase content in high-quality versions recommended above in Instagram and supplement all other social media platforms. This will increase the frequency of appearance of these contents and customer engagement, thus building trust and loyalty on all platforms.

• One of the crucial findings of this study is that most customers follow cosmetic products on social media platforms to obtain more information on the brands’ promotional offers, new releases, trends, advice on the effective use of these products for optimal results, and even prices. With this, brands like Rimmel and L’Oreal that had the least number of the following could heighten their game and increase following by designing high-quality adverts inclusive of all these necessities. Other companies could also adopt this method where a post on social media contains all these pieces of information or attachments therein (Yoon, G., & Vargas, P.T. 2014). This will help save the customer a lot of time and resources while acquiring these pieces of information one after another. When customers find this information at a glance and in the same place, they are likely to get enthused, leading to more product recommendations, loyalty, and trust in a particular brand.

 

APPENDICES

Appendix- Questionnaire

The following questions formed the online survey used during my project, and it was used to investigate the use of social media platforms by the respondents, clients, and customers. It was used to determine how these social media networks, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, influence customers’ choices concerning purchasing beauty products. A maximum of ten minutes was allowed for each respondent to answer the questions. However, anyone who decides to withdraw before the permitted time elapses had the option of doing so.

The Questions consisted of the following:

1. Your Gender? Male, Female, or Not prefer to say.
2. Age of the respondent? 15-25, 26-40, 41-50, 51-60
3. Do you use social media platforms? Yes, No
4. How frequently do you use the social media platform? Often, on a day-to-day basis, once a week or rarely.
5. Which social media platform do you prefer using? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Youtube.
6. Does the respondent use social media to buy beauty products? Yes, No
7. If Yes, which of the following products do you follow? A.C., Huda Beauty, Sephora, Kylie products, glossier, others.
8. Select the reasons why you follow the product you chose previously: To seek advice from other users of the same product, to get information concerning the products, to find out new promotions and advertisements concerning the product, To communicate with the sellers of the beauty product of your choice.
9. Ways you use to communicate with the sellers and other users of the same product? Pick one: Like tags, direct messaging, uploading images and videos or commenting.
10. The type of content you prefer to be posted concerning the beauty products. Images or video.
11. Your view concerning the use of social media by the beauty industries over the purchase of beauty products.
12. What influences you to follow the beauty products on social media platforms?
13. Do you trust the products posted on social media? I disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I agree.
14. Do you rely on these online products? I disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I agree.
15. Do you follow your favorite product on social media? Yes, No
16. Are you loyal to the product you follow?  Yes, No
17. Can you recommend the product you follow to other customers? Yes, No
18. Since you started following your favorite product online, has your relationship with the product and the sellers changed?  Yes, No
19. How do you feel about the products you follow? Positive, Negative