Footmark Pvt. Ltd Case Study - Arts & Humanities Assignment Help

Assignment Task

Research Proposal
The Impact of Negative Emotional Appeals in Facebook - A case on Footmark pvt ltd

1.1 Background
The covid-19 pandemic started in early 2020 has affected each and every sector of the world. Maldives is one country who has been highly affected, mostly the small businesses in the country. According to the report issued by UNDP regarding the impact of Covid 19 crisis in Maldives, there is an annual decline of 53 percent in total imports recorded in April 2020. And the data of Maldives Customs Services shows that there is an MVR 572.1 million loss on import duties collected compared to 2019 April (UNDP, 2020). Due to the lockdowns all the businesses have been closed for months which is a huge loss for all the businesses. As a result, most of the businesses were forced to shut down and others who have survived started online business. Social media has become very popular and everyone’s favorite marketing tool among all the online businesses. 
Social media has become the most dominant advertising tool used in today's world. It is one of the best ways to reach out to the customers, mostly the young generation. Kim & Ko (2011), has stated that a brand and its consumers interact with each other without time, place and media boundary, that is the dynamic changes from a one-way communication to a two-way communication. But there can be a big impact positively or negatively which might affect the company’s reputation as well as the revenue. Using social media to express negative emotions towards a specific product or brand may result in demolishing the image of the business. 

1.2 Problem Statement
Footmark pvt ltd is one company who has been severely affected during the pandemic. Established in 2015 Footmark pvt ltd has become one of the most popular wholesaler and retailer of footwear and sports items in Maldives. Before the pandemic they had 5 outlets in the center of Male’. But due to the loss that occurred during the pandemic they ended up shutting down 3 of their outlets. So, they started selling their products online. They used Facebook as a main tool to market and sell their products. In a few months their sales boost up followed by increasing their customers. But they started facing negative emotional appeals from their Facebook followers. Whenever they post or market anything on Facebook, some of the followers start sharing negative comments towards it. As a result, Footmark started losing their loyal customers which leads to downfall in the company’s monthly sales. The emotional advertising appeal is one kind of advertising appeal, which stimulates the consumer’s emotional attitude towards the product by adding emotion to the advertisement as well as creating the specific advertising image (L. W Turley & S. W Kelley, 1997). Researchers have found that expressing emotions to advertisements can be either positive or negative. And it is proven that ads use positive affect or share positive thoughts attract consumers and make them like and end up purchasing the product, and negative affect or sharing negative thoughts works the other way round. The impact of negative emotional appeals in social media (Facebook) on Footmark pvt ltd will be explored, analyzed and discussed in this research project. 

1.3 Research Objectives
The intention of this research is 
To identify and analyze the impact of negative emotion appeals in social media (Facebook) on small businesses (Footmark pvt ltd).
To identify the factors affecting negative emotional appeals in social media.
To recommend strategies to the company on improving sales and increasing customers loyalty.

1.4 Research questions
The key research question for this project is:  What can be done to minimize negative emotion appeals in order to increase customer loyalty? 
The following sub questions were raised.
1.  What is the relationship between negative emotion appeals and customer loyalty? 
2.  How do negative emotional appeals affect customer loyalty and purchase decisions?
3. What is the impact of negative emotional appeals on company’s financial statements?

1.5 Significance of the Research
Knowledge gained through this research might help to improve the current situation. Since negative emotional appeal is something that no one has control over, but using the data gained, Footmark can lessen the impact that might occur to the company by altering those negative emotions into positive. 
It can also be a tube light for the loyal customers to realize that everything that is shared on social media might not always be true. And their belief about the company might change and make them remain as the company's loyal customers. The results of this study will be beneficial in re-creating the current and existing knowledge towards negative emotional appeals shared in social media.   Furthermore, the loyal customers as well as others will be more aware of such incidents and may create positive outcomes. Similarly, it will support future research as well.

1.6 Research Hypothesis
Research question
Is there any relationship between negative emotional appeals and customer loyalty?
H0 - Null Hypothesis: There will be no relationship between negative emotional appeals and customer loyalty. 
H1 – Alternative Hypothesis: There will be a relationship between negative emotional appeals and customer loyalty. 

1.7 Limitation of the research
The study has various potential limitations such as anonymity, bias and hesitation. Social Media is a huge platform and people can share thoughts anonymously which may be a great difficulty to get accurate information. Because if they share anonymously, it will nearly be impossible to reach them.
Bias and hesitation can be a possible limitation. Some participants hesitate to provide true information because it is unethical to express negative emotions against others. Less or no response from most eligible participants which may affect the analysis of the research significantly. Researcher bias is very common in all the researches but in this research, it can be minimized by carrying out a self-completed questionnaire as in this type of questionnaire participants will not have any influence in completing the questionnaire. 

1.8 Definition of Terms
Negative Emotional Appeals: Sharing or expressing negative emotions towards something
Social Media: a huge platform where people can share their thoughts, ideas and other form of expressions via virtual communities and networks
Customer Loyalty: Customer likeliness to repeat purchases from a specific brand or shop

2.0 Literature Review
Social Media has made customers more sophisticated and helped them develop new tactics in searching, evaluating, choosing and buying goods and services (Albors et al., 2008). It has become the most valuable source amongst the younger generation. As a result of this many business owners have noticed the promising impact of social media on company’s revenue and customer loyalty because the new generation is checking the internet to verify the quality and validity of businesses as well as products before they buy them. Social media is also called as new word of mouth advertising as the news spreads so easily and rapidly. Small business leaders are using this marketing strategy to promote their business to gain visibility, viability, and sustainability to survive in the current competitive era and it also helps to build customer loyalty, avoid social media attacks and most importantly it will increase company’s profit and foot traffic (Taneja 2014). But there is also another side of the story where this may have a negative impact on the business. For example, negative emotional appeal makes a big difference to the company’s revenue. This literature review will discuss negative emotions in advertising and why negative emotions are expressed in social media and the impact of negative emotion appeals to the businesses. 
Emotion describes an emotional state involving thoughts, physiological changes, and an outward expression or behavior. It can be either positive or negative. Negative posts and comments balance positive ones in numbers, nevertheless negative emotions are extra powerful. Many researchers have advised that companies should be aware of the emotional tone of social media discussions related to their products, services and brands (Fan et al., 2013 and Rapp et al., 2013). It is proven that social media is a platform where local and small actions may get worse to its maximum in a very short period of time.
Individuals share negative thoughts and emotions in social media for various motives. Based on the reviewed literature, four motivations have been highlighted. First reason could be, people express for themselves. Thogersen et al. (2009) and Verhagen et al. (2013) have found that customers sometimes use negative word of mouth to illustrate their dissatisfaction in order to get a solution or compensation. To get compensation, people publicize because it helps to reduce their anger induced by bad experiences or a negative state of affairs (Martin et al., 2013). Second reason could be, consumers express for selfless reasons, mainly to help others. Sharing negative experiences online is beneficial to other customers because negative information is more analytical than positive information when making decisions (Jones et al., 2009). This can also be explained as product information related to a well-functioning product is more useful in decision making than a product that does not function well. Third reason is, customers express support to companies to progress their performance. This is also very fruitful to the companies as it explains customers' involvement with the organization. Hanna et al. (2011), for example, have suggested that companies should aim to promote consumers to talk about their products and services in social media. Even though it may be dangerous and risky, it is in the interest of companies to be open for social media conversations (Kietzmann et al., 2011). Fourth reason is to get publicity and attention. Sharing negative and damaging information to become influential people is a new trick used by some people. Noble et al. (2012) have labelled these individuals as trolls. The main goal of these types of people is to demolish the image of an organization using dissatisfied customers.
Social media advertising makes the company more transparent when they are required to face criticism and complaints related to emotions. Some effects include loss of control and power to manage an organization's public image (Li & Bernoff, 2011). Therefore, the organizations should be more aware about social media discussions. A critical part of the awareness is a quick identification of the roots of possible emotional outbreaks. Businesses cannot control or avoid negatively expressed emotions but it can be managed. What is vital is understanding how to behave emotionally intelligently in social media. Hence, to change negative emotions into useful resources, additional experimental research which focuses wholly on negative emotions is applicable in the organizational framework.

2.1 Key Theories
The following theories will be used to evaluate the collected data which are relevant to the studies. Negative emotional appeals and customer loyalty are the key concepts of this issue.  
2.1.1 The Elaboration Likelihood Model: Consumer’s information process is detailly explained in this model. There are two main paths explained in this model, central route and the peripheral route (Petty, Heesacker, & Hughes, 1986). 
Implementing the central route, customers can complete information processing, integrate and investigate complicated information from the advertisement. Later, the product judgment will be designed. In reverse, customers who use the peripheral route may not be attracted by the performance of the product itself, nevertheless over the association and experience of the advertisement to generate their product attitude. This method can be applied to identify the information process of social media influencers mostly Facebook users. 

2.2 Social Cognitive Theory: This theory can be used to examine customer behavior such as their emotional disorders, mental health and the choices they made. According to this theory, personal sense of control is done by behavioral change. If individuals think that they can take action to solve an issue instrumentally, they develop to be inspired to do so and feel more dedicated to that specific decision. Self-efficacy makes a difference in how people feel, think and act (Bandura 1977, 1997). This theory can be applied to recognize the behavior of the individuals who share their negative emotional appeals in social media and their beliefs about the significance of one’s action.

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