The Impact Of Social Media On Fast Food Advertising In Australia: An Essay.

What Do The Young People Of Australia Perceive About The Advertisements Of Fast Foods Through Facebook?

What Are The Major Factors That Create The Negative Impacts On The Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Fast Food Advertisements On Social Media?

How The Advertising Contents Are Linked With The Engagement Of The Young Consumers In Australia?

The current business scenario highlights the fundamental changes in different segments that have fueled the competitiveness among the rival companies. Business marketers adopt the most efficient promotional strategies to increase brand value of the products and services (Kelly et al. 2015). Social media is one of those mostly used platforms for the online promotions that connect the businesses with the potential customers. Food industry is not an exception to this promotional strategy through social media. The industry is also widely using the social media for promoting the food brands and developing higher customer base (Richards, Kjærnes and Vik 2016). However, it has been observed that the use of the social media is sometimes both advantageous and disadvantageous. In this section of the study, the appropriate methodology would be discussed in order to conduct the adequate research based on the subject matter. Furthermore, the study would even provide the data collection techniques and the outline of the literature as well for presenting the issues in a clarified manner.

• To notify the use of social media by fast food industry
• To critically analyze the advantages and disadvantages of social media for the Australian food industry
• To identify the potential challenges faced by the food industry in the upcoming future

It has been reported that product promotions through social media has the clear impact on the potential customers. The social media promotional strategy creates the faster communication and connects the customers worldwide. However, like everything else, social media has the positive as well as negative impacts on the business promotions. Therefore, the project would discuss such advantages and the disadvantages experienced by the fast food industry while promoting the products through social media. Furthermore, the project would also present the use of the appropriate methodologies to conduct extensive research on the subject matter and gather the adequate information.

The literature review in this study presents the comparative analysis of the underlying themes based on the subject matter. In order to explore the negative and positive influence of social media on fast food industry promotional marketing, it is necessary to present the comparative analysis. The judgments would be based on both the positive and negative opinions of the consumers who are gathering knowledge about the brand through social media sites. Rutsaert et al. (2014) pointed out that the franchisees are deliberately refusing to honor the brand promotions, which cause the dissatisfaction and confusion among the customers. It is even observed that the major issues are found in the lack of appropriate customer services. The queries of the customers are sometimes remaining unresolved that becomes a concern for the company. Some of the promotions are highly influenced by the negative comments posted on the social media (Guidry et al. 2015). In addition to this, many customers reported the lack of hygienic food and proper food safety practices at the stores are quite disappointing.

Project Scope

After recognizing some of the basic issues experienced by the customers, the literature shifted the concerns towards the impacts of using social media in Australia. The data obtained from the statistical report highlights that the use of social media like Facebook and Twitter has increased over time (Harris et al. 2017). People who are above the age group of 65 have been mostly using these social media sites for identifying the brand values of the products or services (Saunders and Vallance 2017).  The literature study also explores the impact of social media. It is highlighted that the free charge of promoting products and service is the biggest advantage of social media. The business marketers do not need to pay any money for signing up. They can easily promote their brand through the free sign up on Facebook, Twitter, or in other social media platforms. Moreover, people spend quality time on browsing social media sites. Different forms of social media, such as micro blogs, blogs, photo sharing sites, video sharing sites, instant messaging, virtual media, widgets, etc. are used by the people worldwide. People find it the most efficient and easier way to communicate with others even if they are in the different corners of world. Hence, they gather the sufficient knowledge about the brand value of products or services through such social media sites. Some of the fast food companies like KFC, McDonalds, Subway, etc. are thus utilizing these platforms for establishing the brand identity more extensively (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014).

In spite of such fruitful impacts, the literature study also presents the disadvantages of social media use. It is noticed that people use social media for sharing their experience. Especially, when they are providing their feedback about any product or services through comments on the posts, it reflects their satisfaction or dissatisfaction (He et al. 2015). Along with the positive influence, the negative opinion can also influence the customers in a negative way. The development of the consumer behaviour in a negative way may affect the profitability level of the company. Moreover, using social media for the promotional purposes require more time to invest. If it is not monitored on a daily basis, it would affect the marketing functionalities of the business (Taneja and Toombs 2014). It takes a huge effort to become more interactive in social media and attract more customers.

The literature study provides the knowledge about the impact of the social media on fast food industry. In spite of exploring the comparative analysis, the study could not provide the insightful knowledge about the appropriate strategy that can help in resolving the issues with the negative impact. In fact, the current advancements is also not addressed in this literature study. Therefore, it can be implied that the literature information is limited to some extent.

Literature Review

Application of the appropriate research methodology helps in developing the sequential approach of any particular research subject matter. It generally consists of the structured design, philosophy and data collection method. The use of these segments helps in segregating the subject into different chapters and exploring the underlying concepts (Palinkas et al. 2015). This study focuses o exploring the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for the fast food promotions. The research would be developed by using the mixed method approach. In this method, both the primary and the secondary data are collected. The secondary data is based on the information gathered through the secondary sources, such as books, journals, websites, etc. On the other hand, the primary data collection is further classified into two divisions, such as qualitative data collection and quantitative data collection.

The underlying subject matter would be significantly explored if the actual information is revealed. The use of the positivism philosophy helps in extracting the hidden truth by gathering the responds of the people who have been experiencing the real life scenario (Mertens 2014). Similarly, the opinions of the Australian customers would also be essential to determine the consumer behaviour towards the advertisements process of the fast food industry in social media sites. Moreover, the study requires developing the research hypothesis that analyzes the exact research area much clearly. Therefore, the use of the deductive approach would be helpful in exploring the detailed information and formulating hypothesis in this study. On the other hand, the descriptive design is selected for the research area to gather the clear knowledge about the subject matter and the underlying complexities (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). The descriptive presentation of the data collected from the primary and the secondary sources would be much helpful for exploring the ides associated with the subject.

The secondary research is based on collecting the information about the subject from various secondary sources, such as books, articles, journals, websites, and newspapers. On the other hand, the primary research is based on quantitative and qualitative data collection process. These data collection process and the sampling techniques are discussed further.

• Qualitative Research

The qualitative research depends on the collected information from the limited sample size (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015). The people involved with the qualitative research have the extensive knowledge related to the subject area as they have been dealing with the situations on a regular basis. The telephonic interview with the managers from Australia fast food industry would be helpful in such context. The managers would answer some basic question of the researcher in order to shed lights on their promotional process in social media. The managers from the authentic and renowned companies will take the participation in this process. An interpreter will also be involved to memorize the conversation during this interview session. However, the researcher would not persuade the respondents to share their organisational strategy if they do not feel comfortable enough to discuss. These ethical considerations are needed to be taken into account.

• Quantitative Data Collection

Gap in the Literature

 Quantitative data collection process is subjected to collect a number of data from a larger number of sample populations (Mertens 2014). This process includes an online survey in which the questionnaire would be distributed. The customers who have been dealing with the fast food industry through social media would take the active participation in this process. They would select their preferable answer from the multiple questions present in the questionnaire. The software tool called MS Excel would be used for analyzing the data in a clarified way.

• Sampling Techniques and Size

The primary data collection process depends on the selection of useful sampling techniques. The qualitative data collection process would be initiated by undertaking the interview session with 4 managers from the Australian Fast Food Industry. The Non-Probability, Convenience sampling techniques would be used for gathering responses from the managers in this process. On the other hand, the probability, simple random technique would be used for conducting the survey among 60 customers.  These customers have been using social media sites to share their experiences regarding the fast food quality and other features.

The major limitation found in this research process is the time constraints. The research describes the wider use of social media for the fast food business promotions. The extensive information could have been gathered if the researcher would receive the adequate time. Moreover, the lack of the updated information sources is also quite responsible for limiting the study to some extent. In addition to this, the bias responses received from the respondents who took part these data collection processes are also considered as a drawback.

Table 1: Time Schedule

(Source: Created by the Author)

Conclusion

The study summarizes the information discussed in the literature review section. It is observed that in spite of such fruitful impacts, the literature study also presents the disadvantages of social media use. It is noticed that people use social media for sharing their experience. It provides the insightful ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of using social media by the Australian fast food companies for their advertising purpose. The use of the appropriate methodology and data collection techniques has been discussed in this study. Based on these techniques, the further research study would be developed. The time limitation and lack of the authentic sources of information are the major drawback identified in this research.

References

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Richards, C., Kjærnes, U. and Vik, J., 2016. Food security in welfare capitalism: Comparing social entitlements to food in Australia and Norway. Journal of rural studies, 43, pp.61-70.

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