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Volume 3, Issue 2

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Volume 3, Issue 2

Role of Social Media Marketing in Consumer Buying Decision in Automobile Industry

Author(s)

Shamsher Singh and Ameet Sao

Affiliations
  1. Banarsidas Chandiwala Institute of Professional Studies, Sector 11, Dwarka, New Delhi
  2. RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University, Sector 125, Noida (UP)
Abstract

In the last one decade, the growth of technology has brought a radical shift in the conduct of business from transactional relationship to social relationship. The marketing strategies used by companies are changing frequently to increase awareness and visibility of the brand. Digital revolution and user generated content (UGC) have forced business organizations to adapt social media marketing (SMM) as a strategy to generate interest about their products or services and to create impact on the consumer buying behavior with the help of various social networking sites (SNS). Also the demographic shift enforces the company to adapt new communication strategy for adoption of the product. This paper identify the role of Social Media Marketing, its impact on consumers and the factors influencing consumer buying behavior for automobile industry. The study employs the primary data collected through survey methods from 280 selected respondents and are assumed to represent the population. We used ANOVA, Factor analysis and Regression analysis to test the impact of social media marketing. The factors identified are: Awareness, Recognition, Social Approval, Association & Reliability. The importance of these factors differ across different demographic variables such as age, income, education, occupation and gender. Regression model specifies the role of SMM in impacting consumer buying decision for auto products. These findings will certainly contribute to the automobile industry in influencing consumers for purchase decision.

Keywords

Social Media Marketing (SMM), User Generated Content (UGC), Marketing Strategy, Consumer Buying Behavior, Social Networking Sites (SNS), Automobile Industry.

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