Background of Wesfarmers

In the present age of competition, the business require fast modes of technologies, which possesses flexibility towards bringing automation within the business. Typical example of this is social media marketing, which supports the personnel so they can improve the evil of trafficking so the brand image of the company can be imrpved.. Uploading the information of the products on the social media informs the clients and the customers about the latest products launched. Ensuring that the information reaches to the customers, is one of the efficient means of acquiring competitive advantage over the contemporary brands (Kumar &Pansari, 2016). This assignment develops a proposal related to the fact how the social media can work positively on maintaining competitive advantage. The case study of Wesfarmers is taken as an example.

Founded in 1914, Wesfarmers has achieved accolades and glory as one of Australia’s retail business, dealing in chemical fertilizers, coal mining, industrial and safety products. Acquiring a revenue of AU$65.98 billion in 2016 placed the company above the companies like Woolworths and BHP Bilton. The company is ASX listed, coded as WES. The operations of the company extends up to the threshold of Australia, Bangladesh, Ireland, New Zealand and United Kingdom (Wesfarmers.com.au, 2018). According to the annual report of 2017, the operating income of the company is 4.40 billion A$, whereas the net operating income is 2.87 billion A$. Total assets of Wesfarmers is 40.12 billion A$. Total equity is 23.94 billion A$. Major drive behind this is the hard efforts of 223,000 employees.

In order to maintain the pace with the competitive ambience, all the businesses need automation within the businesses. This is in terms of completing the tasks within the stipulated time frame. Inadequate skills on usage of the social media adds vulnerability into the market position of the companies like Wesfarmers. This inadequacy is a major issue in the present phase, when there is an increased demand for social media marketing. Along with this, it is also an issue in terms of enhancing the professional skills, knowledge, expertise and competencies of the personnel (Wang & Kim, 2017). This research would depict the impact of social media marketing on the maintenance of competitive advantage.

The following project will evaluate the role of social media marketing on the maintenance of competitive advantage in the workplace of Wesfarmers.

Based on the developed aim, these objectives can be determined:

• To identify the channels through which the marketing information are levied to the clients and customers of Wesfarmers
• To assess whether privacy cookies are installed in the profile of the clients and customers of Wesfarmers
• To examine the impact of social media marketing on maintaining competitive advantage in the workplace of Wesfarmers
• To suggest recommendations in the field of social media marketing for acquiring better competitive advantage

Developing aims, objectives and questions is the first step towards broadening the scope and arena of the project. Incorporating the scholarly reviews on the subject matter of the project is the other step towards expanding the horizons of the project. Proposing secondary data in the methodology is one of the effective and efficient steps towards extending the project scope. This is in terms of different themes that are ingrained in the influence of social media marketing on the maintenance of competitive advantage in the workplace of companies like Wesfarmers. Along with this, tools like Gantt chart enhances the awareness towards the time frame, till when the project related activities would be completed.

Importance of Automation in Businesses

Grabbing the attention of the clients and the customers through social networking sites is the main characteristic of social media marketing. This type of marketing is mainly used to promote the services and products of the organization. It is also known as e-marketing or digital marketing. Most of the social media platforms have data analytics installed, which helps in tracking the progress through the engagement of the ad agencies and campaigns. Social media is one of the efficient means of maintaining communication with the clients and the customers. This improves the parameter of customer relationship management (Taneja&Toombs, 2014). One of the latest trends of social media marketing is the “user generated content”, which makes the personnel aware of the customer opinions regarding the levied products and services. Mobile apps is one of the latest applications of social media marketing, escalating the sales revenue of businesses, maximizing the profit margin. The apps are installed with the modern facilities, which makes web browsing and access to the social networking sites easier. Typical examples of the social networking sites are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube among others.

Competitive advantage is the opportunity provided to the companies and organizations to overpower the competitors. Typical components of competitive advantage includes adequate access to natural resources, high grade ores or low cost power source. Along with this, highly skilled labor, geographic location, high entry barriers and the technology are vital in terms of achieving competitive advantage over the contemporary brands.According to the opinions of Tiago &Veríssimo, (2014), offering the clients and the customers greater value is the condition, which needs to be followed for acquiring greater competitive advantage. Advertising the products and services of low prices generates high interest among the clients and the customers. Identifying the target market is assistance in terms of recognizing the unique products and services, which enhance the brand loyalty. Consideration of the target market helps the marketers of the retail business to gain insight into the factors for which the customers are preferring a particular brand over the other. This understanding is crucial for gaining better competitive advantage (Lacoste, 2016).

Social media is one of the effective platforms for the businesses to market their products and services to the customers. Social networking sites such as Facebook is a medium for retail businesses in terms of enhancing the trafficking of the audience towards the brand image. As the present generation is tech savvy, the business are opting social media for reaching to the customers. This approach reflects the conscious approach towards adding flexibility to the parameter of customer relationship management. Creation of values for the clients through levying quality products and services, is one of the other factors, which helps the retail business to achieve greater competitive advantage (Ananda, Hernández &Lamberti, 2016).

Social media revolutionizes the business scenario. Transmission of information to the clients and the customers give rise to altogether new business, bringing in innovation. Aspects like big data, cloud computing and mobile technologies helps the retail businesses to achieve infrastructural development.

Objectives and Research Questions

For installing sophisticated analytical software, huge investments need to be made. This is in terms of incorporating hardware, software and human resources within the business, which is complicated in terms of triviality. Along with this, these are irreplaceable, which needs prior assessment of the financial condition. As per the arguments of Nisar& Whitehead, (2016), social media adversely impacts the buying power of the buyers and sellers. In case of the absence of privacy cookies and policies, the clients and the customers are disinterested towards investing in the retail businesses. This results in large number of customer and employee turnover. Moreover, it also results in loss of organizational data.

There are mainly three types of philosophies, which are applied in a research project. These are-positivism, interpretivism and post-positivism. Positivism relates to the development of scientific, objective knowledge that are associated with the main theme of the research. Post positivism relates to the assessment of the consequences of developing the scientific and objective knowledge. Interpretivism is the philosophy of interpreting the new knowledges related to the subject matter of the project (Mackey&Gass, 2015). In this research project, positivism philosophy would be used by the researcher for developing scientific and objective knowledge related to the influence of social media marketing on enhancing the competitive advantage for Wesfarmers.

In a research, there are two types of approaches, which are imposed by the researcher. These are inductive and deductive. Deductive approach helps the researcher to deduce facts and ideas from the gathered sources. Inductive approach relates with the act of inducing new facts and ideas from the already established facts associated with the main themes of the project (Taylor, Bogdan&DeVault, 2015). In this research, the researcher might implement the deductive approach so the important facts and ideas associated with research can be deduced.

In a research, three designs are applied by the researcher. These are exploratory, explanatory and descriptive. Exploratory design needs the researcher to explore the unexplored realms of the subject matter. Explanatory and descriptive design is when the researcher needs to show the various details and scopes of the research in the best ways (Brannen, 2017). In this research, the researcher would select exploratory research design for exploring the facets of social media marketing in terms of maintaining competitive advantage in the workplace of Wesfarmers.

The data needed for a research is collected mainly through primary and secondary methods. Within this, there are subdivisions- primary and secondary. In the primary method, data is collected by conducting surveys and interviews on the respondents. On the other hand, in the secondary method, data is collected from the secondary sources like journal articles, newspapers and others (Creswell&Creswell, 2017). In this research, the researcher would use secondary research for collecting data on the influence of the social media in case of the maintenance of the competitive advantage for the chosen organization.

The data collected for the research is also analysed through primary and secondary methods. Here also there are subdivisions- quantitative and qualitative. In primary quantitative, survey questionnaires are prepared for analysing the responses of the samples. Along with this, charts, graphs and tables are used for depicting the responses. In the secondary methods, different themes related to the subject matter to prepare the data analysis. (Barnham, 2015). The researchers would like to show the influence of the social media marketing in case of Wesfarmers as they apply this strategy.

In a research, reliability and validity is crucial for grabbing the attention of the readers. Herein lays the appropriateness of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria is the inclusion of the sources, which have been published in the last 10 years. On the other hand, exclusion criteria is the exclusion of the sources, which have been published more than 10 years (Alvesson&Sköldberg, 2017). In this research, the researcher would apply both the inclusion and exclusion criteria for developing reliability and validity in terms of including the sources.

Ethics is an important aspect in terms of enhancing the individualism. This is also applicable in the process of conducting a research. Liberal approach of the research is the indication that he adheres to the ethical considerations while executing the research project (Creswell&Creswell, 2017). In this research, the researcher would adhere to Data Protection Act (1998) for averting the utilization of the sources for commercialization other than the research purpose. Moreover, the researcher would take special care of the instances of plagiarism and collusion.

Table: Gantt chart for the research project

(Source: Created by the researcher)

References

Alvesson, M. &Sköldberg, K., 2017. Reflexive methodology: New vistas for qualitative research. Sage.

Ananda, A. S., Hernández-García, Á.,&Lamberti, L. (2016). N-REL: A comprehensive framework of social media marketing strategic actions for marketing organizations. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 1(3), 170-180.

Barnham, C., 2015. Quantitative and qualitative research: Perceptual foundations. International Journal of Market Research, 57(6), pp.837-854.

Brannen, J., 2017. Mixing methods: Qualitative and quantitative research. Routledge.

Creswell, J.W. &Creswell, J.D., 2017. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Kumar, V., &Pansari, A. (2016). Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal of Marketing Research, 53(4), 497-514.

Lacoste, S. (2016). Perspectives on social media ant its use by key account managers. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, 33-43.

Mackey, A. &Gass, S.M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.

Nisar, T. M., & Whitehead, C. (2016). Brand interactions and social media: Enhancing user loyalty through social networking sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 743-753.

Taneja, S., &Toombs, L. (2014). Putting a face on small businesses: Visibility, viability, and sustainability the impact of social media on small business marketing. Academy of marketing studies journal, 18(1), 249.

Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. &DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., &Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Wang, Z., & Kim, H. G. (2017). Can social media marketing improve customer relationship capabilities and firm performance? Dynamic capability perspective. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 39, 15-26.

Wesfarmers.com.au (2018), Delivering Value Today and Tomorrow, Retrieved 24^th August 2018 from https://www.wesfarmers.com.au/