marketing dissertation proposal example

How To Write A Research Proposal

A Straightforward How-To Guide (With Examples)

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | August 2019 (Updated April 2023)

Writing up a strong research proposal for a dissertation or thesis is much like a marriage proposal. It’s a task that calls on you to win somebody over and persuade them that what you’re planning is a great idea. An idea they’re happy to say ‘yes’ to. This means that your dissertation proposal needs to be   persuasive ,   attractive   and well-planned. In this post, I’ll show you how to write a winning dissertation proposal, from scratch.

Before you start:

– Understand exactly what a research proposal is – Ask yourself these 4 questions

The 5 essential ingredients:

• The title/topic
• The introduction chapter
• The scope/delimitations
• Preliminary literature review
• Design/ methodology
• Practical considerations and risks 

What Is A Research Proposal?

The research proposal is literally that: a written document that communicates what you propose to research, in a concise format. It’s where you put all that stuff that’s spinning around in your head down on to paper, in a logical, convincing fashion.

Convincing   is the keyword here, as your research proposal needs to convince the assessor that your research is   clearly articulated   (i.e., a clear research question) ,   worth doing   (i.e., is unique and valuable enough to justify the effort), and   doable   within the restrictions you’ll face (time limits, budget, skill limits, etc.). If your proposal does not address these three criteria, your research won’t be approved, no matter how “exciting” the research idea might be.

PS – if you’re completely new to proposal writing, we’ve got a detailed walkthrough video covering two successful research proposals here . 

How do I know I’m ready?

Before starting the writing process, you need to   ask yourself 4 important questions .  If you can’t answer them succinctly and confidently, you’re not ready – you need to go back and think more deeply about your dissertation topic .

You should be able to answer the following 4 questions before starting your dissertation or thesis research proposal:

• WHAT is my main research question? (the topic)
• WHO cares and why is this important? (the justification)
• WHAT data would I need to answer this question, and how will I analyse it? (the research design)
• HOW will I manage the completion of this research, within the given timelines? (project and risk management)

If you can’t answer these questions clearly and concisely,   you’re not yet ready   to write your research proposal – revisit our   post on choosing a topic .

If you can, that’s great – it’s time to start writing up your dissertation proposal. Next, I’ll discuss what needs to go into your research proposal, and how to structure it all into an intuitive, convincing document with a linear narrative.

The 5 Essential Ingredients

Research proposals can vary in style between institutions and disciplines, but here I’ll share with you a   handy 5-section structure   you can use. These 5 sections directly address the core questions we spoke about earlier, ensuring that you present a convincing proposal. If your institution already provides a proposal template, there will likely be substantial overlap with this, so you’ll still get value from reading on.

For each section discussed below, make sure you use headers and sub-headers (ideally, numbered headers) to help the reader navigate through your document, and to support them when they need to revisit a previous section. Don’t just present an endless wall of text, paragraph after paragraph after paragraph…

Top Tip:   Use MS Word Styles to format headings. This will allow you to be clear about whether a sub-heading is level 2, 3, or 4. Additionally, you can view your document in ‘outline view’ which will show you only your headings. This makes it much easier to check your structure, shift things around and make decisions about where a section needs to sit. You can also generate a 100% accurate table of contents using Word’s automatic functionality.

Ingredient #1 – Topic/Title Header

Your research proposal’s title should be your main research question in its simplest form, possibly with a sub-heading providing basic details on the specifics of the study. For example:

“Compliance with equality legislation in the charity sector: a study of the ‘reasonable adjustments’ made in three London care homes”

As you can see, this title provides a clear indication of what the research is about, in broad terms. It paints a high-level picture for the first-time reader, which gives them a taste of what to expect.   Always aim for a clear, concise title . Don’t feel the need to capture every detail of your research in your title – your proposal will fill in the gaps.

Need a helping hand?

Ingredient #2 – Introduction

In this section of your research proposal, you’ll expand on what you’ve communicated in the title, by providing a few paragraphs which offer more detail about your research topic. Importantly, the focus here is the   topic   – what will you research and why is that worth researching? This is not the place to discuss methodology, practicalities, etc. – you’ll do that later.

You should cover the following:

• An overview of the   broad area   you’ll be researching – introduce the reader to key concepts and language
• An explanation of the   specific (narrower) area   you’ll be focusing, and why you’ll be focusing there
• Your research   aims   and   objectives
• Your   research question (s) and sub-questions (if applicable)

Importantly, you should aim to use short sentences and plain language – don’t babble on with extensive jargon, acronyms and complex language. Assume that the reader is an intelligent layman – not a subject area specialist (even if they are). Remember that the   best writing is writing that can be easily understood   and digested. Keep it simple.

Note that some universities may want some extra bits and pieces in your introduction section. For example, personal development objectives, a structural outline, etc. Check your brief to see if there are any other details they expect in your proposal, and make sure you find a place for these.

Ingredient #3 – Scope

Next, you’ll need to specify what the scope of your research will be – this is also known as the delimitations . In other words, you need to make it clear what you will be covering and, more importantly, what you won’t be covering in your research. Simply put, this is about ring fencing your research topic so that you have a laser-sharp focus.

All too often, students feel the need to go broad and try to address as many issues as possible, in the interest of producing comprehensive research. Whilst this is admirable, it’s a mistake. By tightly refining your scope, you’ll enable yourself to   go deep   with your research, which is what you need to earn good marks. If your scope is too broad, you’re likely going to land up with superficial research (which won’t earn marks), so don’t be afraid to narrow things down.

Ingredient #4 – Literature Review

In this section of your research proposal, you need to provide a (relatively) brief discussion of the existing literature. Naturally, this will not be as comprehensive as the literature review in your actual dissertation, but it will lay the foundation for that. In fact, if you put in the effort at this stage, you’ll make your life a lot easier when it’s time to write your actual literature review chapter.

There are a few things you need to achieve in this section:

• Demonstrate that you’ve done your reading and are   familiar with the current state of the research   in your topic area.
• Show that   there’s a clear gap   for your specific research – i.e., show that your topic is sufficiently unique and will add value to the existing research.
• Show how the existing research has shaped your thinking regarding   research design . For example, you might use scales or questionnaires from previous studies.

When you write up your literature review, keep these three objectives front of mind, especially number two (revealing the gap in the literature), so that your literature review has a   clear purpose and direction . Everything you write should be contributing towards one (or more) of these objectives in some way. If it doesn’t, you need to ask yourself whether it’s truly needed.

Top Tip:  Don’t fall into the trap of just describing the main pieces of literature, for example, “A says this, B says that, C also says that…” and so on. Merely describing the literature provides no value. Instead, you need to   synthesise   it, and use it to address the three objectives above.

Ingredient #5 – Research Methodology

Now that you’ve clearly explained both your intended research topic (in the introduction) and the existing research it will draw on (in the literature review section), it’s time to get practical and explain exactly how you’ll be carrying out your own research. In other words, your research methodology.

In this section, you’ll need to   answer two critical questions :

• How   will you design your research? I.e., what research methodology will you adopt, what will your sample be, how will you collect data, etc.
• Why   have you chosen this design? I.e., why does this approach suit your specific research aims, objectives and questions?

In other words, this is not just about explaining WHAT you’ll be doing, it’s also about explaining WHY. In fact, the   justification is the most important part , because that justification is how you demonstrate a good understanding of research design (which is what assessors want to see).

Some essential design choices you need to cover in your research proposal include:

• Your intended research philosophy (e.g., positivism, interpretivism or pragmatism )
• What methodological approach you’ll be taking (e.g., qualitative , quantitative or mixed )
• The details of your sample (e.g., sample size, who they are, who they represent, etc.)
• What data you plan to collect (i.e. data about what, in what form?)
• How you plan to collect it (e.g., surveys , interviews , focus groups, etc.)
• How you plan to analyse it (e.g., regression analysis, thematic analysis , etc.)
• Ethical adherence (i.e., does this research satisfy all ethical requirements of your institution, or does it need further approval?)

This list is not exhaustive – these are just some core attributes of research design. Check with your institution what level of detail they expect. The “ research onion ” by Saunders et al (2009) provides a good summary of the various design choices you ultimately need to make – you can   read more about that here .

Don’t forget the practicalities…

In addition to the technical aspects, you will need to address the   practical   side of the project. In other words, you need to explain   what resources you’ll need   (e.g., time, money, access to equipment or software, etc.) and how you intend to secure these resources. You need to show that your project is feasible, so any “make or break” type resources need to already be secured. The success or failure of your project cannot depend on some resource which you’re not yet sure you have access to.

Another part of the practicalities discussion is   project and risk management . In other words, you need to show that you have a clear project plan to tackle your research with. Some key questions to address:

• What are the timelines for each phase of your project?
• Are the time allocations reasonable?
• What happens if something takes longer than anticipated (risk management)?
• What happens if you don’t get the response rate you expect?

A good way to demonstrate that you’ve thought this through is to include a Gantt chart and a risk register (in the appendix if word count is a problem). With these two tools, you can show that you’ve got a clear, feasible plan, and you’ve thought about and accounted for the potential risks.

Tip – Be honest about the potential difficulties – but show that you are anticipating solutions and workarounds. This is much more impressive to an assessor than an unrealistically optimistic proposal which does not anticipate any challenges whatsoever.

Final Touches: Read And Simplify

The final step is to edit and proofread your proposal – very carefully. It sounds obvious, but all too often poor editing and proofreading ruin a good proposal. Nothing is more off-putting for an assessor than a poorly edited, typo-strewn document. It sends the message that you either do not pay attention to detail, or just don’t care. Neither of these are good messages. Put the effort into editing and proofreading your proposal (or pay someone to do it for you) – it will pay dividends.

When you’re editing, watch out for ‘academese’. Many students can speak simply, passionately and clearly about their dissertation topic – but become incomprehensible the moment they turn the laptop on. You are not required to write in any kind of special, formal, complex language when you write academic work. Sure, there may be technical terms, jargon specific to your discipline, shorthand terms and so on. But, apart from those,   keep your written language very close to natural spoken language   – just as you would speak in the classroom. Imagine that you are explaining your project plans to your classmates or a family member. Remember, write for the intelligent layman, not the subject matter experts. Plain-language, concise writing is what wins hearts and minds – and marks!

Let’s Recap: Research Proposal 101

And there you have it – how to write your dissertation or thesis research proposal, from the title page to the final proof. Here’s a quick recap of the key takeaways:

• The purpose of the research proposal is to   convince   – therefore, you need to make a clear, concise argument of why your research is both worth doing and doable.
• Make sure you can ask the critical what, who, and how questions of your research   before   you put pen to paper.
• Title – provides the first taste of your research, in broad terms
• Introduction – explains what you’ll be researching in more detail
• Scope – explains the boundaries of your research
• Literature review – explains how your research fits into the existing research and why it’s unique and valuable
• Research methodology – explains and justifies how you will carry out your own research

Hopefully, this post has helped you better understand how to write up a winning research proposal. If you enjoyed it, be sure to check out the rest of the Grad Coach Blog . If your university doesn’t provide any template for your proposal, you might want to try out our free research proposal template .

Psst… there’s more!

This post is an extract from our bestselling Udemy Course, Research Proposal Bootcamp . If you want to work smart, you don't want to miss this .

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29 Comments

Thank you so much for the valuable insight that you have given, especially on the research proposal. That is what I have managed to cover. I still need to go back to the other parts as I got disturbed while still listening to Derek’s audio on you-tube. I am inspired. I will definitely continue with Grad-coach guidance on You-tube.

Thanks for the kind words :). All the best with your proposal.

First of all, thanks a lot for making such a wonderful presentation. The video was really useful and gave me a very clear insight of how a research proposal has to be written. I shall try implementing these ideas in my RP.

Once again, I thank you for this content.

I found reading your outline on writing research proposal very beneficial. I wish there was a way of submitting my draft proposal to you guys for critiquing before I submit to the institution.

Hi Bonginkosi

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, we do provide a review service. The best starting point is to have a chat with one of our coaches here: https://gradcoach.com/book/new/ .

Hello team GRADCOACH, may God bless you so much. I was totally green in research. Am so happy for your free superb tutorials and resources. Once again thank you so much Derek and his team.

You’re welcome, Erick. Good luck with your research proposal 🙂

thank you for the information. its precise and on point.

Really a remarkable piece of writing and great source of guidance for the researchers. GOD BLESS YOU for your guidance. Regards

Thanks so much for your guidance. It is easy and comprehensive the way you explain the steps for a winning research proposal.

Thank you guys so much for the rich post. I enjoyed and learn from every word in it. My problem now is how to get into your platform wherein I can always seek help on things related to my research work ? Secondly, I wish to find out if there is a way I can send my tentative proposal to you guys for examination before I take to my supervisor Once again thanks very much for the insights

Thanks for your kind words, Desire.

If you are based in a country where Grad Coach’s paid services are available, you can book a consultation by clicking the “Book” button in the top right.

Best of luck with your studies.

May God bless you team for the wonderful work you are doing,

If I have a topic, Can I submit it to you so that you can draft a proposal for me?? As I am expecting to go for masters degree in the near future.

Thanks for your comment. We definitely cannot draft a proposal for you, as that would constitute academic misconduct. The proposal needs to be your own work. We can coach you through the process, but it needs to be your own work and your own writing.

Best of luck with your research!

I found a lot of many essential concepts from your material. it is real a road map to write a research proposal. so thanks a lot. If there is any update material on your hand on MBA please forward to me.

GradCoach is a professional website that presents support and helps for MBA student like me through the useful online information on the page and with my 1-on-1 online coaching with the amazing and professional PhD Kerryen.

Thank you Kerryen so much for the support and help 🙂

I really recommend dealing with such a reliable services provider like Gradcoah and a coach like Kerryen.

Hi, Am happy for your service and effort to help students and researchers, Please, i have been given an assignment on research for strategic development, the task one is to formulate a research proposal to support the strategic development of a business area, my issue here is how to go about it, especially the topic or title and introduction. Please, i would like to know if you could help me and how much is the charge.

This content is practical, valuable, and just great!

Thank you very much!

Hi Derek, Thank you for the valuable presentation. It is very helpful especially for beginners like me. I am just starting my PhD.

This is quite instructive and research proposal made simple. Can I have a research proposal template?

Great! Thanks for rescuing me, because I had no former knowledge in this topic. But with this piece of information, I am now secured. Thank you once more.

I enjoyed listening to your video on how to write a proposal. I think I will be able to write a winning proposal with your advice. I wish you were to be my supervisor.

Dear Derek Jansen,

Thank you for your great content. I couldn’t learn these topics in MBA, but now I learned from GradCoach. Really appreciate your efforts….

From Afghanistan!

I have got very essential inputs for startup of my dissertation proposal. Well organized properly communicated with video presentation. Thank you for the presentation.

Wow, this is absolutely amazing guys. Thank you so much for the fruitful presentation, you’ve made my research much easier.

this helps me a lot. thank you all so much for impacting in us. may god richly bless you all

How I wish I’d learn about Grad Coach earlier. I’ve been stumbling around writing and rewriting! Now I have concise clear directions on how to put this thing together. Thank you!

Fantastic!! Thank You for this very concise yet comprehensive guidance.

Even if I am poor in English I would like to thank you very much.

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Writing a dissertation proposal.

What is a dissertation proposal?

Dissertation proposals are like the table of contents for your research project , and will help you explain what it is you intend to examine, and roughly, how you intend to go about collecting and analysing your data. You won’t be required to have everything planned out exactly, as your topic may change slightly in the course of your research, but for the most part, writing your proposal should help you better identify the direction for your dissertation.

When you’ve chosen a topic for your dissertation , you’ll need to make sure that it is both appropriate to your field of study and narrow enough to be completed by the end of your course. Your dissertation proposal will help you define and determine both of these things and will also allow your department and instructors to make sure that you are being advised by the best person to help you complete your research.

A dissertation proposal should include:

• An introduction to your dissertation topic
• Aims and objectives of your dissertation
• A literature review of the current research undertaken in your field
• Proposed methodology to be used
• Implications of your research
• Limitations of your research
• Bibliography 

Although this content all needs to be included in your dissertation proposal, it isn’t set in stone so it can be changed later if necessary, depending on your topic of study, university or degree. Think of your dissertation proposal as more of a guide to writing your dissertation rather than something to be strictly adhered to – this will be discussed later. 

Why is a dissertation proposal important?

A dissertation proposal is very important because it helps shape the actual dissertation, which is arguably the most important piece of writing a postgraduate student will undertake. By having a well-structured dissertation proposal, you will have a strong foundation for your dissertation and a good template to follow. The dissertation itself is key to postgraduate success as it will contribute to your overall grade . Writing your dissertation will also help you to develop research and communication skills, which could become invaluable in your employment success and future career. By making sure you’re fully briefed on the current research available in your chosen dissertation topic, as well as keeping details of your bibliography up to date, you will be in a great position to write an excellent dissertation.

Next, we’ll be outlining things you can do to help you produce the best postgraduate dissertation proposal possible.

How to begin your dissertation proposal

1. Narrow the topic down  

It’s important that when you sit down to draft your proposal, you’ve carefully thought out your topic and are able to narrow it down enough to present a clear and succinct understanding of what you aim to do and hope to accomplish in your dissertation.

How do I decide on a dissertation topic?

A simple way to begin choosing a topic for your dissertation is to go back through your assignments and lectures. Was there a topic that stood out to you? Was there an idea that wasn’t fully explored? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then you have a great starting point! If not, then consider one of your more personal interests. Use Google Scholar to explore studies and journals on your topic to find any areas that could go into more detail or explore a more niche topic within your personal interest. 

Keep track of all publications

It’s important to keep track of all the publications that you use while you research. You can use this in your literature review.

You need to keep track of:

• The title of the study/research paper/book/journal
• Who wrote/took part in the study/research paper
• Chapter title
• Page number(s)

The more research you do, the more you should be able to narrow down your topic and find an interesting area to focus on. You’ll also be able to write about everything you find in your literature review which will make your proposal stronger.

While doing your research, consider the following:

• When was your source published? Is the information outdated? Has new information come to light since?
• Can you determine if any of the methodologies could have been carried out more efficiently? Are there any errors or gaps?
• Are there any ethical concerns that should be considered in future studies on the same topic?
• Could anything external (for example new events happening) have influenced the research?

Read more about picking a topic for your dissertation . 

How long should the dissertation proposal be?

Aiming for 1,000 words or more, your dissertation proposal will give an outline of the topic of your dissertation, some of the questions you hope to answer with your research, what sort of studies and type of data you aim to employ in your research, and the sort of analysis you will carry out.

Different courses may have different requirements for things like length and the specific information to include, as well as what structure is preferred, so be sure to check what special requirements your course has.  

2. What should I include in a dissertation proposal?

• Introduction

The introduction will state your central research question and give background on the subject, as well as relating it contextually to any broader issues surrounding it. Read more about picking a topic for your dissertation .

The dissertation proposal introduction should outline exactly what you intend to investigate in your final research project.

Make sure you outline the structure of the dissertation proposal in your introduction, i.e. part one covers methodology, part two covers a literature review, part three covers research limitations, and so forth.

Dissertation methodology

The dissertation methodology will break down what sources you aim to use for your research and what sort of data you will collect from it, either quantitative or qualitative. You may also want to include how you will analyse the data you gather and what, if any, bias there may be in your chosen methods.

Depending on the level of detail that your specific course requires, you may also want to explain why your chosen approaches to gathering data are more appropriate to your research than others.

Consider and explain how you will conduct empirical research. For example, will you use interviews? Surveys? Observation? Lab experiments?

In your dissertation methodology, outline the variables that you will measure in your research and how you will select your data or participant sample to ensure valid results.

Finally, are there any specific tools that you will use for your methodology? If so, make sure you provide this information in the methodology section of your dissertation proposal.

• Aims and objectives

Your dissertation proposal should also include the aims and objectives of your research. Be sure to state what your research hopes to achieve, as well as what outcomes you predict. You may also need to clearly state what your main research objectives are, in other words, how you plan to obtain those achievements and outcomes.

Your aim should not be too broad but should equally not be too specific.

An example of a dissertation aim could be: ‘To examine the key content features and social contexts that construct successful viral marketing content distribution on Twitter’.

In comparison, an example of a dissertation aim that is perhaps too broad would be: ‘‘To investigate how things go viral on Twitter’.

The aim of your dissertation proposal should relate directly to your research question.

• Literature review

The literature review will list the books and materials that you used to do your research. This is where you can list materials that gave you more background on your topic, or contain research carried out previously that you referred to in your own studies. 

The literature review is also a good place to demonstrate how your research connects to previous academic studies and how your methods may differ from or build upon those used by other researchers. While it’s important to give enough information about the materials to show that you have read and understood them, don’t forget to include your analysis of their value to your work.

Where there are shortfalls in other pieces of academic work, identify these and address how you will overcome these shortcomings in your own research.

Constraints and limitations of your research

Lastly, you will also need to include the constraints of your research. Many topics will have broad links to numerous larger and more complex issues, so by clearly stating the constraints of your research, you are displaying your understanding and acknowledgment of these larger issues, and the role they play by focusing your research on just one section or part of the subject.

In this section it is important to Include examples of possible limitations, for example, issues with sample size, participant drop out, lack of existing research on the topic, time constraints, and other factors that may affect your study.

• Ethical considerations

Confidentiality and ethical concerns are an important part of any research.

Ethics are key, as your dissertation will need to undergo ethical approval if you are working with participants. This means that it’s important to allow for and explain ethical considerations in your dissertation proposal.

Keep confidentiality in mind and keep your participants informed, so they are aware of how the data provided is being used and are assured that all personal information is being kept confidential.

Consider how involved your patients will be with your research, this will help you think about what ethical considerations to take and discuss them fully in your dissertation proposal. For example, face-to-face participant interview methods could require more ethical measures and confidentiality considerations than methods that do not require participants, such as corpus data (a collection of existing written texts) analysis. 

3. Dissertation proposal example

Once you know what sections you need or do not need to include, it may help focus your writing to break the proposal up into separate headings, and tackle each piece individually. You may also want to consider including a title. Writing a title for your proposal will help you make sure that your topic is narrow enough, as well as help keep your writing focused and on topic.

One example of a dissertation proposal structure is using the following headings, either broken up into sections or chapters depending on the required word count:

• Methodology
• Research constraints

In any dissertation proposal example, you’ll want to make it clear why you’re doing the research and what positives could come from your contribution. 

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How to Write a Dissertation Proposal | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on 14 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 11 November 2022.

A dissertation proposal describes the research you want to do: what it’s about, how you’ll conduct it, and why it’s worthwhile. You will probably have to write a proposal before starting your dissertation as an undergraduate or postgraduate student.

A dissertation proposal should generally include:

• An introduction to your topic and aims
• A literature review  of the current state of knowledge
• An outline of your proposed methodology
• A discussion of the possible implications of the research
• A bibliography  of relevant sources

Dissertation proposals vary a lot in terms of length and structure, so make sure to follow any guidelines given to you by your institution, and check with your supervisor when you’re unsure.

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Table of contents

Step 1: coming up with an idea, step 2: presenting your idea in the introduction, step 3: exploring related research in the literature review, step 4: describing your methodology, step 5: outlining the potential implications of your research, step 6: creating a reference list or bibliography.

Before writing your proposal, it’s important to come up with a strong idea for your dissertation.

Find an area of your field that interests you and do some preliminary reading in that area. What are the key concerns of other researchers? What do they suggest as areas for further research, and what strikes you personally as an interesting gap in the field?

Once you have an idea, consider how to narrow it down and the best way to frame it. Don’t be too ambitious or too vague – a dissertation topic needs to be specific enough to be feasible. Move from a broad field of interest to a specific niche:

• Russian literature 19th century Russian literature The novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
• Social media Mental health effects of social media Influence of social media on young adults suffering from anxiety

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Like most academic texts, a dissertation proposal begins with an introduction . This is where you introduce the topic of your research, provide some background, and most importantly, present your aim , objectives and research question(s) .

Try to dive straight into your chosen topic: What’s at stake in your research? Why is it interesting? Don’t spend too long on generalisations or grand statements:

• Social media is the most important technological trend of the 21st century. It has changed the world and influences our lives every day.
• Psychologists generally agree that the ubiquity of social media in the lives of young adults today has a profound impact on their mental health. However, the exact nature of this impact needs further investigation.

Once your area of research is clear, you can present more background and context. What does the reader need to know to understand your proposed questions? What’s the current state of research on this topic, and what will your dissertation contribute to the field?

If you’re including a literature review, you don’t need to go into too much detail at this point, but give the reader a general sense of the debates that you’re intervening in.

This leads you into the most important part of the introduction: your aim, objectives and research question(s) . These should be clearly identifiable and stand out from the text – for example, you could present them using bullet points or bold font.

Make sure that your research questions are specific and workable – something you can reasonably answer within the scope of your dissertation. Avoid being too broad or having too many different questions. Remember that your goal in a dissertation proposal is to convince the reader that your research is valuable and feasible:

• Does social media harm mental health?
• What is the impact of daily social media use on 18– to 25–year–olds suffering from general anxiety disorder?

Now that your topic is clear, it’s time to explore existing research covering similar ideas. This is important because it shows you what is missing from other research in the field and ensures that you’re not asking a question someone else has already answered.

You’ve probably already done some preliminary reading, but now that your topic is more clearly defined, you need to thoroughly analyse and evaluate the most relevant sources in your literature review .

Here you should summarise the findings of other researchers and comment on gaps and problems in their studies. There may be a lot of research to cover, so make effective use of paraphrasing to write concisely:

• Smith and Prakash state that ‘our results indicate a 25% decrease in the incidence of mechanical failure after the new formula was applied’.
• Smith and Prakash’s formula reduced mechanical failures by 25%.

The point is to identify findings and theories that will influence your own research, but also to highlight gaps and limitations in previous research which your dissertation can address:

• Subsequent research has failed to replicate this result, however, suggesting a flaw in Smith and Prakash’s methods. It is likely that the failure resulted from…

Next, you’ll describe your proposed methodology : the specific things you hope to do, the structure of your research and the methods that you will use to gather and analyse data.

You should get quite specific in this section – you need to convince your supervisor that you’ve thought through your approach to the research and can realistically carry it out. This section will look quite different, and vary in length, depending on your field of study.

You may be engaged in more empirical research, focusing on data collection and discovering new information, or more theoretical research, attempting to develop a new conceptual model or add nuance to an existing one.

Dissertation research often involves both, but the content of your methodology section will vary according to how important each approach is to your dissertation.

Empirical research

Empirical research involves collecting new data and analysing it in order to answer your research questions. It can be quantitative (focused on numbers), qualitative (focused on words and meanings), or a combination of both.

With empirical research, it’s important to describe in detail how you plan to collect your data:

• Will you use surveys ? A lab experiment ? Interviews?
• What variables will you measure?
• How will you select a representative sample ?
• If other people will participate in your research, what measures will you take to ensure they are treated ethically?
• What tools (conceptual and physical) will you use, and why?

It’s appropriate to cite other research here. When you need to justify your choice of a particular research method or tool, for example, you can cite a text describing the advantages and appropriate usage of that method.

Don’t overdo this, though; you don’t need to reiterate the whole theoretical literature, just what’s relevant to the choices you have made.

Moreover, your research will necessarily involve analysing the data after you have collected it. Though you don’t know yet what the data will look like, it’s important to know what you’re looking for and indicate what methods (e.g. statistical tests , thematic analysis ) you will use.

Theoretical research

You can also do theoretical research that doesn’t involve original data collection. In this case, your methodology section will focus more on the theory you plan to work with in your dissertation: relevant conceptual models and the approach you intend to take.

For example, a literary analysis dissertation rarely involves collecting new data, but it’s still necessary to explain the theoretical approach that will be taken to the text(s) under discussion, as well as which parts of the text(s) you will focus on:

• This dissertation will utilise Foucault’s theory of panopticism to explore the theme of surveillance in Orwell’s 1984 and Kafka’s The Trial…

Here, you may refer to the same theorists you have already discussed in the literature review. In this case, the emphasis is placed on how you plan to use their contributions in your own research.

You’ll usually conclude your dissertation proposal with a section discussing what you expect your research to achieve.

You obviously can’t be too sure: you don’t know yet what your results and conclusions will be. Instead, you should describe the projected implications and contribution to knowledge of your dissertation.

First, consider the potential implications of your research. Will you:

• Develop or test a theory?
• Provide new information to governments or businesses?
• Challenge a commonly held belief?
• Suggest an improvement to a specific process?

Describe the intended result of your research and the theoretical or practical impact it will have:

Finally, it’s sensible to conclude by briefly restating the contribution to knowledge you hope to make: the specific question(s) you hope to answer and the gap the answer(s) will fill in existing knowledge:

Like any academic text, it’s important that your dissertation proposal effectively references all the sources you have used. You need to include a properly formatted reference list or bibliography at the end of your proposal.

Different institutions recommend different styles of referencing – commonly used styles include Harvard , Vancouver , APA , or MHRA . If your department does not have specific requirements, choose a style and apply it consistently.

A reference list includes only the sources that you cited in your proposal. A bibliography is slightly different: it can include every source you consulted in preparing the proposal, even if you didn’t mention it in the text. In the case of a dissertation proposal, a bibliography may also list relevant sources that you haven’t yet read, but that you intend to use during the research itself.

Check with your supervisor what type of bibliography or reference list you should include.

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Prize-Winning Thesis and Dissertation Examples

Published on September 9, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on July 18, 2023.

It can be difficult to know where to start when writing your thesis or dissertation . One way to come up with some ideas or maybe even combat writer’s block is to check out previous work done by other students on a similar thesis or dissertation topic to yours.

This article collects a list of undergraduate, master’s, and PhD theses and dissertations that have won prizes for their high-quality research.

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Award-winning undergraduate theses, award-winning master’s theses, award-winning ph.d. dissertations, other interesting articles.

University : University of Pennsylvania Faculty : History Author : Suchait Kahlon Award : 2021 Hilary Conroy Prize for Best Honors Thesis in World History Title : “Abolition, Africans, and Abstraction: the Influence of the “Noble Savage” on British and French Antislavery Thought, 1787-1807”

University : Columbia University Faculty : History Author : Julien Saint Reiman Award : 2018 Charles A. Beard Senior Thesis Prize Title : “A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man”: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947

University: University College London Faculty: Geography Author: Anna Knowles-Smith Award:  2017 Royal Geographical Society Undergraduate Dissertation Prize Title:  Refugees and theatre: an exploration of the basis of self-representation

University: University of Washington Faculty:  Computer Science & Engineering Author: Nick J. Martindell Award: 2014 Best Senior Thesis Award Title:  DCDN: Distributed content delivery for the modern web

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University:  University of Edinburgh Faculty:  Informatics Author:  Christopher Sipola Award:  2018 Social Responsibility & Sustainability Dissertation Prize Title:  Summarizing electricity usage with a neural network

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty:  Education Author:  Matthew Brillinger Award:  2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Humanities Prize Title:  Educational Park Planning in Berkeley, California, 1965-1968

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty: Social Sciences Author:  Heather Martin Award:  2015 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title:  An Analysis of Sexual Assault Support Services for Women who have a Developmental Disability

University : University of Ottawa Faculty : Physics Author : Guillaume Thekkadath Award : 2017 Commission on Graduate Studies in the Sciences Prize Title : Joint measurements of complementary properties of quantum systems

University:  London School of Economics Faculty: International Development Author: Lajos Kossuth Award:  2016 Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Title:  Shiny Happy People: A study of the effects income relative to a reference group exerts on life satisfaction

University : Stanford University Faculty : English Author : Nathan Wainstein Award : 2021 Alden Prize Title : “Unformed Art: Bad Writing in the Modernist Novel”

University : University of Massachusetts at Amherst Faculty : Molecular and Cellular Biology Author : Nils Pilotte Award : 2021 Byron Prize for Best Ph.D. Dissertation Title : “Improved Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Molecular Diagnostics for Soil-Transmitted Helminths”

University:  Utrecht University Faculty:  Linguistics Author:  Hans Rutger Bosker Award: 2014 AVT/Anéla Dissertation Prize Title:  The processing and evaluation of fluency in native and non-native speech

University: California Institute of Technology Faculty: Physics Author: Michael P. Mendenhall Award: 2015 Dissertation Award in Nuclear Physics Title: Measurement of the neutron beta decay asymmetry using ultracold neutrons

University:  Stanford University Faculty: Management Science and Engineering Author:  Shayan O. Gharan Award:  Doctoral Dissertation Award 2013 Title:   New Rounding Techniques for the Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms

University: University of Minnesota Faculty: Chemical Engineering Author: Eric A. Vandre Award:  2014 Andreas Acrivos Dissertation Award in Fluid Dynamics Title: Onset of Dynamics Wetting Failure: The Mechanics of High-speed Fluid Displacement

University: Erasmus University Rotterdam Faculty: Marketing Author: Ezgi Akpinar Award: McKinsey Marketing Dissertation Award 2014 Title: Consumer Information Sharing: Understanding Psychological Drivers of Social Transmission

University: University of Washington Faculty: Computer Science & Engineering Author: Keith N. Snavely Award:  2009 Doctoral Dissertation Award Title: Scene Reconstruction and Visualization from Internet Photo Collections

University:  University of Ottawa Faculty:  Social Work Author:  Susannah Taylor Award: 2018 Joseph De Koninck Prize Title:  Effacing and Obscuring Autonomy: the Effects of Structural Violence on the Transition to Adulthood of Street Involved Youth

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Examples of research proposals

How to write your research proposal, with examples of good proposals.

Research proposals

Your research proposal is a key part of your application. It tells us about the question you want to answer through your research. It is a chance for you to show your knowledge of the subject area and tell us about the methods you want to use.

We use your research proposal to match you with a supervisor or team of supervisors.

In your proposal, please tell us if you have an interest in the work of a specific academic at York St John. You can get in touch with this academic to discuss your proposal. You can also speak to one of our Research Leads. There is a list of our Research Leads on the Apply page.

When you write your proposal you need to:

• Highlight how it is original or significant
• Explain how it will develop or challenge current knowledge of your subject
• Identify the importance of your research
• Show why you are the right person to do this research
• Research Proposal Example 1 (DOC, 49kB)
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Qualitative & Quantitative data analysis

IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SPORTS MARKETING – A CASE OF NIKE UK

[Name of Student]

[Name of University]

The aim of this study was to analysis the impact of social media advertising on sports marketing within the context of Nike in the UK. Using the statistics exhibited, this inquisition substantiates that social media content is most important element of digital marketing success of Nike. This study conducted mixed method research process with 100 marketing professionals in the UK as survey participants and 10 marketing professionals as interview participants. It can be observed from the survey results that there is significant impact of social media marketing on sports marketing. The social media affects sports marketing through content, celebrity endorsement and through positive word of mouth. The results of this study are generally consistent with those of past literature.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: introduction.

Throughout history, the successive introduction of new technologies has operated as a generator of social change. The digitization of information and the convergence of this phenomenon with that of its network distribution have brought with it a new era of human development of historical dimensions. Since the appearance of the Internet, and more specifically with the advent of web 2.0, the world of communication has undergone great transformations (Horák, 2016), thus consolidating the idea that the history of communication is closely linked to the history of technology. The linear theoretical model of mass communication in which a sender (source) transmits a message through a channel (media) destined for a receiver (public), for many years has been the dominant paradigm in studies on the information and communication (Nufer, 2016). Since information and communication is an important aspect of business, therefore, related technologies such as social media have also gained their importance which is the main aspect of this research study.  

Today, the social media admits certain revisions in favor of a more reticular than linear model, with which the traditional flow of information basically one-way “from one to many” has been changed to a flow of multidirectional cut “from many to many”. In short, some old explanatory models of mass communication have already been overtaken by novel approaches (Huang and Hsu, 2017).

The strictly technological, while being fundamental, is not the only key element of this process that many already qualify as a “paradigm shift” and in which, as in all revolutions, there is another unavoidable protagonist, i.e. the individual. The great difference between new media and traditional media lies in the greater interactive potential of the latter. The Internet and the rest of new social media allow the multidirectional flow of messages and greater possibilities for selection, expression and communication (Erzikova, et al., 2016). There are those who interpret that the Internet is not so much a technology as a cultural production, because it is a truly social construction, in which users are simultaneously consumers and producers of content (“prosumers”). It is the people themselves who shape this new lattice model through their contributions, through their actively creative participation and through their collaborative attitudes (Hsu and Hunang, 2017). Based on these arguments, this study aims to focus on the social media and how it is shaping the business communication particularly marketing communication in modern world.

McCarthy (2016) pointed out a few years ago that the media would improve if they somehow emulated the way people communicate in face-to-face conversations. Machines alone have not been and are not capable of generating a full interactive discourse, but they are necessary tools for users to develop their relationship skills. The individual has thus taken a leading role in the formation and growth of this interactive network culture that has opened the human mentality to dialogue and to a continuous approach in a scenario of multiple participations like never before. According to Saari and Tuominen, (2016), Internet users seek to dialogue, discuss, confront, support and, in one way or another, establish a relationship with others. In short, as powerful as it is, technology is only an enabling tool that gains its true strength in the hands of (connected) people. Therefore, the focus of this research has been set on the social media which is an important networking internet based tool.

Both quantitatively and qualitatively speaking, the emergence of online social channels (social media) is perhaps the most significant phenomenon that has occurred in the Internet environment in recent years, so that the interaction of people in real time, regardless of the location they have become one of the star activities of the moment in the online world, something of which some data give a good example (Hoffrén, 2019). 90% of Internet users already belong to some social network; social media has already surpassed the consumption of other online services and material such as entertainment music, video, etc. Majority of the businesses are using social media such as LinkedIn to recruit employees and, the rate of minors accessing social networks on the Internet from smart mobile phones increased exponentially (Newman, Peck, and Wilhide, 2017).

According to Hale, (2016) an overwhelming majority of mobile phone users who connect to the Internet from their mobile phones do so to access social networks. Perhaps the definitive proof of the strength and successful social implantation of the latest technologies and the phenomena of use associated with them is the amazing speed with which they have succeeded, because as Haemers, (2016) points out to achieve the 50 million users, the radio needed 38 years, television required 13 years, Internet required 4 years, the iPod required 3 years, but for Facebook it took just nine months to reach its first 100 million users (Ehrenberg and da Costa Bueno, 2016). Since social media has gained increasing importance for both consumers and businesses therefore there is a need to continuously gather empirical evidence and this study contributes towards this notion.

The latest technical means of communication have revolutionized the traditional way of seeing the world. Now there is a balance in which, on the one hand, we have the structured and controlled information offered by the traditional media and, on the other, a collective citizen action that generates its own content and places it on platforms of theoretically universal access (Ristevska-Jovanovska, 2017). At the same thing happens in institutional settings, the internet has made it easier for companies and institutions to create their own “media”, thus breaking the traditional difference in roles between the media that “inform others” and the social subjects of information (Fetchko, Roy, and Clow, 2018). Social media as therefore become an important and unique communication channel between businesses and consumers and this study aims to explore its potential through a case study of Nike, which is considered to be leader in social media marketing.

Placing the focus of these initial reflections in the field of sport, the influence that the latest information and communication technologies are having on it is also indisputable, and vice versa. In order to understand the evolution of sport throughout history with a holistic vision, it is necessary to attend in parallel to the changes experienced by the media and the evolution of information technology itself (Manna, 2019), because the osmosis between sport and communication goes beyond the extremely important role that the media has played – and is playing – in the financing of sports, fundamentally, but not exclusively, in its professional sphere. The media have spectacularized the sport to the point of molding spectators and athletes themselves a particular experience of it (Schmidt, et al., 2018).

Ristevska-Jovanovska, (2018) posited that there is no longer sport without television, nor television without sport. Furthermore, the study pointed out at the dawn of the 21st century that in a context of profound changes in the system of production and distribution of communication, sport has become a representative social practice of the processes of convergence that occur in the information society between technological, cultural and social factors, and that this convergence should not be considered, therefore, as an isolated phenomenon, but as a direct consequence of the transformations that are taking place in the communications system and in the new processes of cultural mediation in the information society (Hazari, 2018).

Problem Statement

In sports industry, the NIKE brand has marked an incomparable importance when evaluating the incidence of different brands on the perception and behaviour of sports consumers. Supporting this is the plethora of marketing research that explains the evolution that Nike and other sporting brands have had over time and how they have standardized a prototype of comfortable and practical sports merchandise in global society. It also explains the success and positioning that these brands have had worldwide by offering quality, innovation and continuous improvement in their products (Caetano, 2019).

One of the key success factors of Nike is its effective marketing strategy. Nike, like other sporting brands, makes heavy investment in marketing and advertising. Furthermore, there has been significant research about the way Nike has used social media and has become the leading sporting brand on Twitter as well as other social media platforms (White, White, and White, 2017). This study is aimed to understand and explore the impact of social media on sports marketing by conducting the case study of Nike as case study. The aim is to assess and stress upon the use and impact of social media in sports marketing in the UK. 

Aims and Objectives

The research would like to evaluate the impact of social media advertising on sports marketing.

• To Study the concept of social media advertising and sports marketing
• To identify the key factor pertaining to social media that influence sports a marketing
• To study the impact of social media on sport marketing in light of Nike UK.
• To provide recommendations to Nike UK on deploying effective social media strategies to enhance sports marketing.

Research Questions

The research questions formed for achieving the aim of study are as follows:

• What is the concept of social media advertising and sports marketing?
• What are the key factors pertaining to social media that influence sports a marketing?
• What is the impact of social media on sport marketing in light of Nike UK?
• What are the social media strategies Nike UK can deploy to enhance sports marketing?

Research Organisation

The organisation of this study has been divided into five main components. The first part is the introduction and rationale for research phenomenon, research problem, aims and objectives. The second part is the secondary data collection and analysis results in the form of a comprehensive literature review. The literature review also developed a conceptual framework that serve as the foundation for primary data collection and analysis methods. The third chapter provides complete details and rationale for each methodological step undertaken during the course of the study. In the fourth component the researcher presented results and analysis of primary empirical evidence. Finally the study ends with conclusions and recommendations.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction.

Despite the fact that the first scores between business and sport were already visible at the beginning of the 20th century, it was not until the 70s of the last century when marketing settled definitively in the world of sports. Thanks in large measure to radio and television, which were the main means of announcing the products of the different brands. Nike, Adidas and Puma took advantage of this wave and in just ten years they grew exponentially (Cornwell, 2016). One of the visible and most prominent heads at the beginning was Phil Knight, founder of the sports company Nike. Considered the father of sports marketing, he was able to quickly make a name for himself in the commercial world thanks to the sponsorship he offered to athletes such as Michael Jordan or the Brazilian soccer team (Madej, 2019).

Today, and taking advantage of the revolution that social media has brought, it is much easier to make yourself known. Additionally, companies target a much broader audience. The objective, without a doubt, is to establish a brand-athlete and public-brand relationship. And this is the main change that this sector has managed: to commercialize everything that surrounds sport (Phua, et al., 2018). For Nikodimou and Dimitrakopoulou, (2019) practically everything is marketed and highlights that clubs and athletes are aware of the media platform they have become and seek to obtain the greatest possible economic return for their activity.

Real Madrid or Football Club Barcelona may be charging around 100 million euros per season from their sponsor. It would be unreasonable to think that a high-level team could be entering these amounts of money. But taking the beginnings of marketing as a reference, there is no doubt that he took sport as an object to continue growing and that he does it more and more (Burton, 2019).

History of sports marketing

Despite the fact that there are some glimpses of the relationship between advertising and sport in the second half of the 19th century, it was not until the 20s of the last century when this contact was made. It originated in the United States and gradually spread throughout the world. It was in the year 1923 when the Wilson Sporting Goods company began to sponsor the golfer Gene Sarazen (Toffoletti, 2016). At first, the agreement stood at $ 6,000 per month and an extra of the same amount for expenses on their trips. The Wilson company, founded by Thomas E. Wilson, is well known today for being the sponsor of high-level tennis rackets like Roger Federer or Serena Williams (Gadiraju, 2016).

Years later and already in 1928, Coca Cola decided to bet heavily on the Amsterdam Olympics. They managed to sell more than 1,000 cases of bottles and it was the main drink of many of the athletes who gathered there. In addition, the Coca Cola logo was already visible on some posters of the event and since then its relationship with the Olympic Games has increased considerably, being one of the most important official sponsors (Billings, et al., 2017).

The radio also took advantage of this type of strategy and began to establish its first advertising spaces. However, this method was definitively implemented with the appearance of the then journalist Phil Knight, one of the founders of the Nike brand in 1964. His company has since been dedicated to the design, development, manufacture and marketing of balls, footwear, clothing, equipment, accessories and other sports items. Knight also managed to establish a millionaire contract in the 80s with the famous basketball player Michael Jordan, creating at that time the Air Jordan sneakers (Sobande, 2019). Like radio, television and the media in general, they served as a voice so that all these companies began to market their products and grew little by little. In 1951, the American television channel National Broadcasting Company (NBC), began to broadcast the main sporting events that had repercussions nationally and worldwide. Companies, especially Americans, began to value and saw the opportunity to include their brand in these events, observing the effect they had (Bohnsack, et al., 2016).

Following this line, in the 60s sports companies continued to see the media as a fundamental piece when promoting their products. In addition, the fight between the most famous sports brands began: Nike, Adidas and Puma. From the 70s, many athletes are already included as the protagonists of numerous spots or advertising campaigns. The campaign moved politically. Adidas wanted to highlight how the Argentine country was at that time: lifting of the prohibition of Peronism, the Farc, the corruption of many military personnel, the lack of unity of the people (Prather, 2018). With the motto Representatives of the new Argentina: strong and elegant united took football as a starting point to reverse that situation through sportswear. In addition, the campaign also included the company Gatic, founded in 1953 and which was licensed by the Adidas company from Germany to manufacture sports products in Argentina (Schlereth and Frederick, 2017).

In the 80s, the inclusion of athletes themselves in advertising spaces was strengthened. Even many brands that did not sell sports products also saw selling their product via athletes as viable. One of the most famous advertising campaigns of the 80s was carried out by Diego Armando Maradona and promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, when the Argentine footballer was at Fútbol Club Barcelona. The spot promoted sports in addition to showing its refusal to use drugs (Diers-Lawson and Croucher, 2017).

The irruption of companies not linked to the sports world established a relationship with those that did, with the objective of mutual benefit. Nike’s relationship with football grew exponentially from the 90s and its ads began to become authentic works of art. One of them was the announcement that featured the Brazilian soccer team in ’98, one of the best in history. The spot was shot at the end of 97 and was published the following year on the occasion of the 1998 World Cup in France (Cottingham and Petersen-Wagner, 2018). The chosen setting was the Galeao Airport in Rio de Janeiro. Soccer players such as Ronaldo or Rivaldo, among others, toured the entire airport with dribbles, watermarks, ball kicks, all the beauty of Brazilian football. The announcement is remembered as one of the best in football history (da Silva and Las Casas, 2018).

Already in the 21 st century, more and more brands are taking sport to sell their products or to be the official sponsor of a club. Without going any further, the flight company Fly Emirates, is the official sponsor of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol or Rakuten, the largest online store in Japan, which is the Fútbol Club Barcelona. This, linked to the rise of social networks, has turned sports into an industry that continues to grow (Sande, 2019).

Social networks within sports marketing

Create a hashtag, upload a video or carry out raffles. Launch surveys, conduct contests or do a live show. More than 90% of companies have carried out any of these actions. Social networks have allowed brands to go further and retain more people. Also, they have allowed you to follow a live match of a team through their platform or find out about the latest signings. Features such as immediacy or feedback allow you to connect the brand with the public. In this case, the companies are sports teams, with the aim of establishing a closer relationship with fans (Sanderson and Siegfried, 2018). An example of this is creating attractive content, the task of the Community Managers, and that this content goes viral. One of the most recognized in Spanish football is the Community Manager of Club Deportivo Leganés. His creativity and close contact with the followers of the Madrid team has made his content go beyond simple information and has made the followers feel part of his publications (Scelles, et al., 2017).

The creativity of the Twitter simulating a Champions League match by the time and day of the match against Real Madrid went viral in a few hours. Also connecting with the athletes themselves is also a success of social networks. Beaming or sharing a content at important events reiterates that feedback between players and fans (Stavros and Smith, 2019). We can feel their feelings, their sensations after having played a game or simply their day to day within a sports team. On the other hand, we can highlight that companies are targeting a young audience, given that adolescents tend to spend a lot of time on social networks and are waiting for new sports products at the last minute (Chisam, 2019).

By having a wide variety of platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.), one can know the likes of our followers through surveys or just by responding to the publications made by the company (for example: uploading an image of some new sneakers). In addition, by publishing this type of content, the company can increase its sales within its website with online payment, without having to make its buyer go to the physical store (Rowe, et al., 2019). According to Geurin and McNary, (2020) social networks are very important. In my opinion perhaps advertising in mainstream media is overrated. Brands were always fighting to be in prime time and reach a larger audience, but today social networks allow you to segment a target audience and reach it directly causing greater impact than, for example, television.

Background of Sports Marketing

In the twentieth century, the emergence of sport as a professional practice is perceived and, at the same time, it begins to have a powerful presence as the axis of thematic content in the mass media, modifying the level of traditional symbolic practice: a new and double synergy between communications and sports. Until the late 1960s, sport maintained relative autonomy from the mass media (Budraitis, 2016). But the influences came when the media flooded the field of sports information to become protagonists with live and direct broadcasts. From that moment, they became natural and genuine co-authors (Phillips, 2019). Sports fields and stadiums were the new television studios. The growth of the relationship between television and sport has been so significant and marked that even | Study carried out by the Chicago Tribune revealed that between 1900 and 1975 sports pages had gone from 9 to 17% of the newspaper (Deshinge, 2020).

Most importantly, in 1975, sports commentaries occupied almost 50% of the local, national and international press together. Editors had realized that readers wanted more sports, more comics, more fun, and less news. In fact, in 1984 an expert detected that the sports section occupied 30% of all the circulation of a newspaper in a big city (Fried and Mumcu, 2016). In 1990, sports fans in the United States were able to purchase their own sports newspaper, “The National” daily. Although this newspaper has already disappeared, a new one will probably appear soon. Based on the above, it is noted that the increase in sports information in the different media had an impact on the birth of sports marketing (Youn and Jin, 2017).

Legg and Dottori, (2017) say that in the specific case of basketball in the United States of America. It was suggested to the NBA the increase in downtime to have more advertising spaces, in tennis a new scheme was created, later called a tie-break to reduce the duration of games; in volleyball a system called rally point appeared, where it is not necessary to have the serve to add. And in soccer, even the change of shirt was forced during the game to improve the visualization of the teams. Shortly before 1972, the great changes did not take long to arrive, mainly to the market of the brands that offer sports products and services; The “revolution” of the clothing companies appears on the scene with a strong accent and the so-called brand war is introduced to sport (Nichols, Cobbs, and Tyler, 2019).

According to Mittal and Manavalan, (2017) in 1978 Advertising Age used the terminology of Sports Marketing to describe the activities of the consumer, the product of the industry and those responsible for marketing who began to use sports excessively as a vehicle for promotion

The Product of Sport

Hand in hand with what is defined as a product in traditional marketing, Wolfsteiner, Grohs, and Reisinger, (2019) affirm that a vital step in sports marketing is recognizing that you are dealing with a special product. Given the preeminence of this product in our culture, we understand that the organisations that offer sports to their consumers form the industry. If a product can be described as a set or combination of qualities, processes and attitudes (material, services, and / or ideas) that the buyer expects to bring him satisfactions, it is a peculiar aspect that distinguishes the sport. In this aspect, the sport product offers the consumer the satisfaction of some basic desires or needs such as health, fun or sociability. This advantage has to be redefined by the person in charge of marketing in an organisation (Maderer, Parganas, and Anagnostopoulos, 2018).

Gajek, (2016) approached sport as a product, they set out to show some components that in this research are grouped in the following table and that are part of the same for detail the elements that belong to its constitution, then define the following:

Components of the Sport Product.

According to Vimieiro, (2017), sport is a product and a service that many people around the world enjoy playing, observing and participating. While there has been a great deal of global media attention at sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup of world football, there appears to be a lack of integration between sports marketing and international business disciplines, both from one point from a practical and academic point of view. There is enormous potential to link sports marketing and international business literature through focusing on corporate sports businesses that occur around the world. Finlay, (2018), demonstrated the need to adopt an international perspective of sports marketing and business relations to deal.

Sports Marketing Strategies

According to Cornwell and Kwon, (2019) sports marketing strategies vary according to the type of company and the business in which they operate, but in general they are focused on the consumer of sports products, seeking to find a differentiating and sustainable advantage. before the competitors. Given this new panorama, sport has become a source of symbols and social representations with great influence, so companies do not hesitate to use advertising campaigns to create new needs and influence people’s behaviour. In order for a brand to position itself above another in the minds of consumers, it is important that companies identify with the values and attributes of their brands and thus be able to search for the most appropriate channels and marketing strategies, to reach they consumers more directly and effectively (Pourazad, Stocchi, and Pare, 2019).

Nufer, (2016) adds that in any organisation or type of company, the customer is the starting point, since the objective of an efficient service strategy is to keep current customers satisfied and attract potential customers, This must be considered when designing the marketing or marketing plan. Generally, customer satisfaction is used as a tool in quality management planning. Every organisation must have a marketing plan (Oliveira, 2019).

According to Brown, Anderson, and Dickhaus, (2016) currently many countries have soccer teams that focus their sports marketing strategies, towards four main objectives:

• Increase the number of partners, through campaigns for fans to bond with the team.
• Sale of tickets and subscribers for all the games of the season, offering special benefits to the fans, to get resources through important assistance to the stadium.
• Sale of television rights and advertising space in the stadium in each of the games played.
• Obtain sponsorship agreements with companies seeking exposure of their brands, as an important source of income for the team’s operation.

King, et al,., (2012) argue that loyalty is another key variable within the marketing that is applied in sports clubs, the authors propose the importance of applying defensive marketing strategies to loyalty to consumers and not an offensive marketing that only aims to motivate new consumers by snatching them away from the competition. The same authors point out that they often make the mistake of neglecting current customers to attract new ones, investing money in consumer attraction campaigns (Volozova, 2016). According to the experts mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, it is much more difficult to conquer new clients than to retain current ones, this last strategy being more advantageous, since loyalty of current clients could without further effort captivate new consumers only through word of mouth (Bigsby, Ohlmann, and Zhao, 2019).

Recently, sports activities involving people with limited capacity in their sports staff have become important within the sports industry and the same has led to the massification and attractiveness of events of this magnitude, from the perseverance and discipline that these athletes They print in their profession, and the same seeks to raise awareness among those with the same disabilities to start a sports career (Abeza, et al., 2017).

Theoretical Framework

For Moragas (1985 cited in Serazio, 2019), the uses and gratifications approach create an exploration of individual behaviour towards the media, because they create and gratify their needs. Many of the needs studied may be related to the media but others are independent of them. For his part, Klevtcova, (2018) between the end of the 1950s and the second half of 1970, developed the approach in which he analyzed not only the content of the media, but also the audience that became partially active. The normative theory of social responsibility used especially the theory of ‘uses and gratifications’. In this theory, individuals choose according to their personal goals and needs to satisfy them. But it assumes that each member of the audience is isolated, has different needs, and therefore uses the media with different objectives and interests and also in a different and selective way (Popp, Horbel, and Germelmann, 2018).

Likewise for Kunkel and Biscaia, (2020) the theory of uses and gratifications arises directly from functionalism. This theory is based on the fact that gratifications come not only from media content, but from the type of exposure to the medium and from the social context of gratifying consumption. In other words, this theory believes that the audience becomes an active element, since it chooses the means to satisfy its needs and gratifications. On the one hand, Chanavat and Desbordes, (2017) according to the Theory of Uses and Gratifications, the mass media satisfy some needs, such as cognitive, aesthetic-affective, entertainment and integrative. The audience stops being passive to become active, which was not the case with other theories. There will be those who for their part want to see the Simpsons, while there will be those who choose the news programs. There will also be those who prefer show programs, etc. It is simple, people have power and it is with the use that they give to the means that satisfy certain needs. On the one hand, the needs that seek to be satisfied can be those of entertainment, informational, recreation, etc. (McKelvey and Grady, 2017).

Conceptual Framework

Content marketing.

In case of digital marketing and specifically in social networks within its sports marketing strategy, the content is considered to be most important aspect. According to Hoffrén, (2019) the firms should carry out a coherent content strategy to meet its objectives. The published content is considered to be most influential factor (Hoffrén, 2019). Though, the content is considered to be most influential aspect of digital and social media marketing, but it cannot be the centre of sports marketing strategy for any firm. Since a content if it is not intended for a specific type of audience or target will not be successful. If it also does not meet the issuer’s objectives, not only will it not be successful, but it will also comply with the strategy set by the institution, so there will be no Return on Investment (ROI) that marketers require (McCormick, 2018).

Therefore, what is meant at this point is that the first thing the firm must do is to be clear about what the objective as a firm will be, what strategies will be followed to achieve those objectives, and above all, who or who are the targets that we want to impact with the content (Cornwell, 2016). Once the objectives have been established, the different audiences with different interests should be identified. This means that the generated content must be of interest to those audiences so that they cause the effect which has been marked in the club’s sports marketing plan (Jones, 2019).

Celebrity Endorsement

Social networks have fundamentally changed the way people are connected to each other. The same applies to the way in which brands communicate with their customers and prospects. News reaches users of Twitter, Facebook and other social networks as it unfolds, much faster than any other media and more and more of our free time is devoted to consulting our mobile phones on which social networks are enthroned. Therefore the social networks of sports celebrities strategic for the brand marketing plan (Richelieu, 2016).

Sport produces passions, presents itself as a source of well-being, a health asset and a synonym of positivism. On a certain level, sport unites millions of people under a single shared will, whatever their beliefs, their socio-professional categories and their lifestyle. The communities gathered around sports celebrities such as world stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kobe Bryant or Michael Phelps present numbers that create confusion (Sanderson and Siegfried, 2018). No less than 63 million fans on Facebook for Ronaldo and 21 million followers on Twitter! This is how brands like Babolat, for example, have bet on a global sports icon, Rafael Nadal, to promote its products, instantly communicating with 5.2 million followers on Twitter and more than 12 million fans of the tennis on Facebook (Austin and Jin, 2017).

The social media allows brands to communicate quickly to an attentive and enthusiastic target audience, it is essential to remember that they are not like other means of communication. The power of Twitter, Facebook and other Instagram lies in the relevance of the message transmitted and its credibility, which must be linked to the sports celebrity to which the account belongs (Fried and Mumcu, 2016). As such, perfect compatibility between the brand, its image, its products and the sportsperson is one of the key elements for the success of a digital influence campaign with product placements, as demonstrated by the successful activations of Cristiano Ronaldo and Nike his sponsor, on social networks (Carson, 2018).

Product placement on sports celebrity accounts integrated more generally into a digital influence campaign highlighting the benefits of a product or service is capable of having an unequalled impact, from the moment when it is scrupulously planned and controlled. The message, whatever it is – even if it is a sponsored communication (Cornwell and Kwon, 2019) will have more value in the eyes of members of the sports community because it is more authentic and more credible. Social networks give new impetus to celebrity marketing and present themselves as a platform capable of multiplying the desired effect by a brand, both in terms of awareness and results in terms of the sale of its products or services. The term Powerful means within the reach of brands wishing to quickly reach their audience and influence their behaviour (Leng, 2017).

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is an important aspect of social media marketing. The concept of word of mouth is the recommendation made by satisfied consumers through content they create on social media platforms. Loyal customers provide valuable positive as well as negative feedback about products and services of the company and show their satisfaction (Volozova, 2016). They also highlight unique characteristics of the products and services and they help to build and promote brand over the internet. Taking advantage of the virality of the medium, the scope of the product awareness can be exponential. Social media word of mouth reaches more audiences, more effectively (Nufer, 2016). When combined with the effects of social media, what is said on social media can go far beyond the scope of traditional marketing. Word of mouth resulting from speech and activity will effect, change behaviour, and influence the actions of others (Kalu, 2019).

With the help of new social media services, companies can shape and lead positive conversations over time and with desired results. It has been shown that digital influence is the fundamental building block in the marketing and service of companies around the world. To help make sense of how word of mouth becomes influence (Hazari, (2018), Caetano, (2019) recommends to understand how reach and relevance fuel resonance. Resonance is a result of scope and relevance and determines how long something stays alive in the stream before attention dissipates. This is important because social media is a noisy world, and without resonance, conversations evaporate quickly. As the activity that results from influence campaigns is not only measurable, it reveals the elements of resonance that can be optimized. In order to measure results as a brand, they first have to be designed into the strategy and accounted for in the supporting parameters (Belasen and Belasen, 2019).

Within this context, Connolly, (2020) highlighted the role of Buzz marketing, or word of mouth marketing which is a technique, within viral marketing, whose objective is to generate conversation among people towards a specific brand or product. To do this, it begins by inducing product testing in a few specifically selected consumers, who discuss their experience with other people, becoming not only transmitters of information, but also acquire the ability to influence their purchasing behaviour (Madej, 2019).

Chapter Summary

The review above clearly indicates that sports marketing has seen gradual and significant changes with the introduction of different marketing strategies such as celebrity endorsement as well as adoption of new technologies such as social media. The fundamental aspect of sports marketing, like marketing in any other industry, is to develop content that is favourable for the firm, its brand, and its product. The ultimate aim is to influence the consumer behavior among which one of the most important objectives is to encourage customers to spread positive word of mouth. This study has combined these variables in the conceptual framework above to conduct a primary survey questionnaire based empirical evidence to evaluate the impacat of social media marketing on sports marketing within the context of Nike .

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This part of the study is focused on discussion about methodological design and process undertaken during the course of the study (Brannen, 2017). The discussion begins with philosophical position and then continues to identify the research approach. The discussion then carries on to identify alternate research methods and provides justification for the current choice. The next section provides discussion about data collection instrument, data analysis techniques and sampling techniques. Finally, the researcher also provides a brief discussion of ethical considerations undertaken in this study.

Research Philosophy

Epistemological position in social research refers to the belief and perspective of researcher regarding methods and ethos of research process to gain acceptable knowledge. There are two basic contradictory schools of thought with respect to epistemology. One of them is the positivism, which stands with the opinion that for the acquisition of acceptable knowledge, it is critical to apply methods and ethos of natural sciences (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015). Therefore, positivism requires quantification of social phenomenon. In contrast, the interpretivist epistemological paradigm stress upon the idea that the subject matter of social sciences is different as compared to subject matter of natural phenomena. Hence, instead of applying methods and ethos of natural sciences, the social research process should be based on a separate research strategy (Walliman, 2015). Hence, the interpretivist paradigm conducts social research process from subjective perspective and does not quantifies phenomenon under consideration. Finally, there is the hybrid of both interpretivist and positivist paradigm, which stands that both quantitative and qualitative aspect of a social phenomenon can be integrated to conduct social research (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015).

This study is based on pragmatism paradigm, because the fundamental aim of the study is to understand and explore the impact of social media marketing in sport marketing within the context of Nike. The researcher believes that both quantitative and qualitative methods are required to gain clear understanding of the impact and hence the researcher decided to posit with the positivist pragmatism.

Research Approach

In social research community, the research approach can be classified either as deductive or inductive. The deductive approach aims to use existing theories and test them within the context of specific target settings. The purpose is to test the theory to ascertain that whether the theory that is applicable in general settings can be used to explain the specific target settings also (Silverman, 2016). In sharp contrast, the inductive reasoning based research approach aims to develop new theories instead of testing existing theories. The inductive reasoning based approach collects data from specific circumstances and then continues to identify common patterns and similarities, based on which a theory is constructed and proposed (Bryman, 2016).

This study is designed with deductive approach. The justification to choose deductive reasoning-based research approach is that the aim of the study is to test the impact of social media in sports marketing within the specific content of Nike company. There is significant theoretical debate regarding the impact of social media in sports marketing. Therefore this study conducted a conceptual model from existing theories and then identified the factors that can be used to explain the impact of social media. The researcher then collected data for the Nike as target settings and then applied the conceptual framework to analyse whether existing theoretical relationships are applicable in case of Nike.

Research Methods

The research methods are grouped as mixed method, qualitative method, and quantitative method. If the researcher uses the quantitative method, the entire research process is based on quantitative data only. The phenomenon under consideration is quantified and then data is collected in the form of numbers, ratings, digits, etc. The distinguishable benefit of quantitative method is that it provides higher reliability as compared to qualitative method because the data is quantitative and thus has minimum personal bias (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015). However, the major limitation in the quantitative method is that it lacks to provide in-depth details about feelings, experiences, opinions of people. If qualitative methods are chosen for the social research process, the entire process is based on qualitative and subjective data only. This type of data can be text(s), speeches, pictures, or other forms excluding numerical data. The qualitative method provides in-depth details about feelings, experiences, and opinions of people, and overcomes the weakness in the quantitative method (Walliman, 2015). However, the qualitative method is typically subjective and therefore it is often critiqued for its vulnerability to personal bias of data sources. Finally, there is mixed method which is the hybrid of both quantitative and qualitative method and thus the research process requires collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. Although, the mixed method overcomes the limitations of both mono-methods, yet the time and budget requirements of mixed methods are higher and therefore it is considered to be a constraint (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015).

This study is based on mixed method. The primary rationale for choosing research mixed method is that the choice is dependent upon the choice of research epistemology. The positivist paradigm is often paired with quantitative method and the interpretivist paradigm is paired with qualitative method. Since this study is based on pragmatism paradigm, therefore mixed method is considered to be natural choice for this investigation. In order to overcome the constraints in mixed method, the research decided to minimize the sample size of both quantitative and qualitative data collection processes. This was done to meet strict deadline from university and to minimize the budget requirements.

Research Strategy

A number of strategies have been developed and implemented in social research community which include, but not limited to, survey strategy, action research, ethnographic strategy, etc. The survey strategy is based on collection of data from a sample of target population at a specific point in time. It is a commonly applied research strategy as it provides high level of time and cost efficiency (Silverman, 2016). In contrast, there is ethnographic strategy in which the main requirement for researcher is to collect data as a member of target population. There are multiple data collection processes at different time intervals (Bryman, 2016). The reliability of ethnographic strategy is considered to be high because it provides more comprehensive analysis and larger empirical evidence. However, the ethnographic strategy has very high time and budget requirements which make it unfeasible for small scale research processes (Brannen, 2017).

This study is based on survey strategy. The research chose survey because the study was based on mixed method and the survey strategy facilitated to manage time and budget constraints. In addition, survey strategy allowed to collect large amount of data in relatively less time and gathers statistically reliable and significant evidence within the specified time duration (Walliman, 2015). The ethnographic strategy was also not feasible for researcher because it required to become a member of target population which meant that researcher needed to become a professional marketer in the UK. This was not viable in current circumstances (Silverman, 2016).

Data Collection Methods

Data collection methods are categorized on the basis of type or nature of sources of data. Primarily, there are two groups, the primary data collection methods and secondary data collection methods. The secondary data collection methods are those sources that are already published and provide past evidence and information regarding research phenomenon (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015). Typically, secondary data collection is considered to be highly time and cost efficient because researchers are now able to collect large amount of data using digital libraries and search engines. However, the primary critique on using the secondary methods of data collection is that the sources provide past data only and therefore there is no fresh evidence to gain new insights. In addition, secondary data and information are also considered to be less reliable as they are vulnerable to potential bias of publisher, for example, government publications and institutional publications may be politically biased (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015).

This study used a number of secondary sources of data which include research articles in published academic journals and libraries, text books, as well as literature and research published by universities and other institutions. In order to minimize the personal bias problem, the researcher used articles from credible and authentic only. Since articles are published after editing and reviewing therefore personal bias is minimized. The purpose of using secondary data and information was to identify existing theories and then develop a conceptual model to analyse specific target settings of Nike. The results of secondary data collection process have been presented in previous chapter.

The primary sources are those that require researcher to collect fresh empirical evidence from human participants. The main benefit of primary sources of data is that they provide new data and evidence and thus provide the opportunity to gain new and innovative insights into the research phenomenon (Silverman, 2016). However, the main constraint in using primary evidence is that they are more costly and time consuming as compared to secondary data. Primary data collection involves sampling from target population and then collection of data using data collection instruments (Bryman, 2016). The details of data collection instruments used in this study are provided in the following section.

Data Collection Instruments

Data collection instruments are devices or tools that are used to accumulate primary data from participants in the study. Data collection instruments are chosen in accordance with the research methods choice. There are several data collection instruments available for quantitative and qualitative data (Walliman, 2015). Since this study was based on mixed method, therefore two data collection instruments were conducted for data collection process. The details of each of these tools are provided in following sections:

Questionnaire

For quantitative data collection, one of the commonly used instruments is questionnaire. The questionnaire is grouped into standardized questionnaire/scales for measurement of social phenomena or self-administered or customized questionnaires. The standardized questionnaires are those that have been specifically developed to measure a specific data collection instrument such as employee satisfaction surveys, customer satisfaction survey, service quality surveys, etc. (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015). The basic advantage of standardized tools are developed and tested and have proven reliability and validity. However, they are standardized and therefore may not meet the individual or unique requirements of target setting or particular research. The self-administered questionnaires, on the other hand are those that are developed and formulated by researcher to collect data within the specific research aims and objectives (Silverman, 2016). Self-administered questionnaires enable the researchers to formulate questions that can provide required data for the research process while also meeting unique requirements of each setting. However, the reliability and internal consistency of self-administered questionnaire are considered to be lower as compared to standardized tools (Bryman, 2016).

This study conducted a self-administered questionnaire. The researcher designed the questionnaire in five sections. In the first section, the researcher formulated questions regarding demographic characteristics of participants which include gender, education, and age groups. Each of the characteristic was operationalized using a statement and relative multiple choice answers that respondent could choose (Walliman, 2015). The next three sections in the questionnaire were focused on accumulation of data for independent variables, i.e. content marketing, celebrity endorsement, and word of mouth respectively. Each of these sections contained four statements followed by Likert five point scale (Silverman, 2016). The respondents were asked to show their degree of agreeability towards the statement from strong disagree to strongly agree. Each of the items in the scale was assigned a rating which was used as quantitative data. The last section of the questionnaire was focused on independent variable. The structure of this section was the same as used in previous three sections.

For qualitative data collection, the social researchers commonly use focus groups and/or interviews. The focus group is a method that allow researcher to conduct a discussion about research phenomenon with two or members of the target population. Each focus group typically has three or four participants but could involve more. In contrast, the interview is a qualitative data collection method in which the discussion is conducted between the researcher and one respondent only (Bryman, 2016). The main advantage of focus group over interviews is that the former provide large amount of data in relatively less time as compared to latter as there are several respondents at the same time providing data. However, the limitation in focus group as compared to interviews is that the former compromises the confidentiality and anonymity of participants while the interviews provide complete anonymity (Brannen, 2017). However, since interview discussions are one-to-one only, therefore the researcher has conduct several interviews to collect sufficient data for research process and thus interviews are much time and cost consuming (Walliman, 2015).

In this study, the researcher decided to conduct individual interviews because it was not feasible for the researcher to gather two or more marketing professionals in the UK and conduct discussion about sports marketing of Nike due to differences in their schedules and availability. Individual interview was thus a feasible choice for researcher. In order to minimize time and cost aspects of individual interviews the researcher decided to conduct structured interviews (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015). The structured interviews are those types of interviews in which there is a predetermined list of questions which are posed to all participants. The main benefit of structured interviews as compared top unstructured interviews is that the former provide high level of time efficiency as compared to latter. Furthermore, the focus of interviews questions and discussion is strictly focused on research objectives and thus highly relevant data and responses are acquired (Silverman, 2016).

Sampling Strategy

Sampling techniques are defined as identifying a sub-set of population that can be used in research process to represent entire population. The sample members are involved in data collection process for empirical data, the analysis and results of which are considered to be applicable on total population. General categories of sampling techniques are probability and non-probability sampling techniques (Brannen, 2017). The basic difference between probability and non-probability sampling techniques is that the former requires that the probability to participate and get recruited is distributed equally in the entire population while the former is free of any such restrictions. The main benefit of probability sampling techniques is higher reliability while the main limitation is that the researcher must have access to complete target population (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015). Since the target population in this study is marketing professionals in the UK, therefore it is a huge and the researcher did not have adequate means and channels to access all professionals in the UK. Hence probability sampling techniques were not feasible in this study (Walliman, 2015).

The sampling in this study was done using the convenience sampling technique. The convenience sampling can be used to access population members in the nearest vicinity and as per own convenience of researcher (Taylor, Bogdan, and DeVault, 2015).

The sampling process for questionnaire participants began with interacting with marketing professionals using social media channels and the researcher asked them to provide email addresses. The researcher sent blank questionnaire, blank consent form and research background in MS Word format to those participants who agreed to participate in the study. The researcher sent 156 emails and in response 100 complete questionnaire with signed consent forms were gathered. The data collection process was stopped at 100 sample size as it is an adequate sample size for statistical analysis. The same technique and process was applied for interview participants. Each interview was conducted using one-to-one interviews through multimedia applications in the smartphone. All discussions were recorded and then transcripts were prepared using the MS Word format.

Data Analysis Techniques

The data analysis technique is defined as a process that converts raw data into meaningful results and inferences and conclusions are drawn from results. Therefore are different data analysis techniques for quantitative and qualitative data. In case of quantitative data, statistical techniques are used (Silverman, 2016). The statistical techniques are highly appreciated in research community as they provide results in the form of tables and graphs which makes it easier to understand and analyse the data and interpret easily. However, statistical analysis cannot be chosen for qualitative analysis and they provide limited inferences as compared to qualitative data (Bryman, 2016).

This study used three statistical techniques commonly used in social research processes. The frequency analysis, correlation technique, and regression model were used to understand and analyse the quantitative data and explore the impact of social media marketing on sports marketing within the context of Nike. The impact of each variable in the conceptual framework was gauged using these techniques. The results and interpretations are presented in the following chapter.

For qualitative data analysis technique, there are several techniques which include thematic analysis, grounded theory, and content analysis, among others. In this study, the researcher used thematic analysis. Thematic analysis is a technique that enables the researcher to choose a set of keywords and then search them in large pieces of text(s), such as interview transcripts and sort the most relevant data called the categories. Once the relevant data is collected, the researcher further refines the data and identify common patterns and similarities in different pieces. These similarities and patterns are termed themes (Brannen, 2017).

The same technique and process was applied in this study. Since the interview questions were formulated using keywords from objectives, therefore, the researcher used thematic analyses and used the same keywords for search for themes in the interview transcripts. The results of the thematic analysis are presented in the form of a narrative in following chapter.

Reliability and Generalisability

The reliability is one of the important aspects in research processes. This study assessed the reliability by evaluating the internal consistency of the questionnaire survey. The internal consistency was evaluated using the Cronbach’s alpha measure.

Although, the results of this study are generalizable on Nike consumers, yet they are not necessarily applicable in case of all sports consumers. In addition, the results are limited to be applicable on sports industry only and do not explain the behavior of consumers in other industries.

Ethical Considerations

A number of ethical principles were observed during the course of this study. Firstly, the author used Harvard referencing style to pay proper credit and credentials to all the works that have been used. In addition, the researcher obtained consent from all participants during the data collection process for the accumulation and use of data for academic purposes. Furthermore, the researcher has maintained confidentiality and anonymity of all participants. Finally, the researcher used the data and information of participants for the academic use only and was not put to commercial use.

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The primary research results are presented and analysed in this chapter. The first section analyses quantitative results using frequency tables, correlation coefficients, and regression model. The next section in the chapter summarises the results of interviews transcript analysis. The interview results are organized in relation to the theme of each interview question. The researcher has provided quotations from transcripts as supplementary evidence to inferences. Furthermore, the results are also compared with past literature to check their consistency.

Questionnaire Results

Frequency trends analysis.

The British marketing professionals were requested that they notify the gender. The frequencies of questionnaire analyses indicated that 57% of the British marketing professionals rated male and 43% of the British marketing professionals highlighted female.

The British marketing professionals were requested in the questionnaire that they identify their age group. As per the frequencies the researcher showed that 24% of the British marketing professionals marked 18-30 years, 18% of the British marketing professionals selected 31 to 40 years, 24% of the British marketing professionals selected 41 to 50 years, 34% of the British marketing professionals ticked 51 to 60 years, and 0% of the British marketing professionals selected over 60 years.

The questionnaire questioned British marketing professionals that they mention the educational background. The findings of frequency tables indicate following trends 14% of the British marketing professionals opted undergraduate, 16% of the British marketing professionals opted graduates, 14% of the British marketing professionals rated postgraduates, and 56% of the British marketing professionals marked others.

In the survey British marketing professionals were asked to select one rating for the statement below. Social media content is most important element of digital marketing success of Nike. Following trends have been obtained from ratings  5% of the British marketing professionals opted strongly disagree, 16% of the British marketing professionals marked disagree, 8% of the British marketing professionals highlighted neutral, 35% of the British marketing professionals picked agree, and 36% of the British marketing professionals ticked strongly agree.

The British marketing professionals were requested that they rate the statement as followed. The content on Nike social media platforms is coherent and consistent with its strategic marketing objectives. The frequencies of questionnaire analyses indicated that 6% of the British marketing professionals selected strongly disagree, 16% of the British marketing professionals chose disagree, 6% of the British marketing professionals highlighted neutral, 33% of the British marketing professionals chose agree, and 39% of the British marketing professionals opted strongly agree.

The questionnaire requested that they rate the statement as followed. The content of Nike’s social media is focused on developing community of loyal customers. Following trends have been obtained from ratings  8% of the British marketing professionals picked strongly disagree, 18% of the British marketing professionals picked disagree, 5% of the British marketing professionals ticked neutral, 28% of the British marketing professionals picked agree, and 41% of the British marketing professionals opted strongly agree.

In the survey British marketing professionals were asked to select one rating for the statement below. Nike effectively uses social media content for advertising and marketing of its products and brand. The findings of frequency tables indicate following trends  8% of the British marketing professionals highlighted strongly disagree, 13% of the British marketing professionals opted disagree, 9% of the British marketing professionals chose neutral, 35% of the British marketing professionals picked agree, and 35% of the British marketing professionals marked strongly agree.

The questionnaire requested that they rate the statement as followed. Nike has a powerful customer engagement such as ‘@NikeSupport’ to enhance positive word of mouth. The trends observed from frequency tables indicated that 9% of the British marketing professionals rated strongly disagree, 12% of the British marketing professionals chose disagree, 9% of the British marketing professionals opted neutral, 34% of the British marketing professionals rated agree, and 36% of the British marketing professionals marked strongly agree.

The questionnaire requested British marketing professionals to select one rating for the statement below. Social media has become an essential feature of sports marketing firms such as Nike. As per the trends in survey ratings this study reports that  12% of the British marketing professionals rated strongly disagree, 9% of the British marketing professionals picked disagree, 9% of the British marketing professionals selected neutral, 35% of the British marketing professionals chose agree, and 35% of the British marketing professionals chose strongly agree.

The British marketing professionals were requested in the questionnaire that they rate the statement as followed. The success of social media based sports marketing is heavily relied upon the content quality. From the frequency tables it was found that  9% of the British marketing professionals rated strongly disagree, 11% of the British marketing professionals picked disagree, 10% of the British marketing professionals selected neutral, 39% of the British marketing professionals opted agree, and 31% of the British marketing professionals selected strongly agree.

The British marketing professionals were requested that they rate the statement as followed. Celebrity endorsement is a customary and effective marketing strategy for sports merchandise firms such as Nike. The frequencies of questionnaire analyses indicated that 7% of the British marketing professionals chose strongly disagree, 12% of the British marketing professionals marked disagree, 10% of the British marketing professionals opted neutral, 33% of the British marketing professionals selected agree, and 38% of the British marketing professionals picked strongly agree.

The questionnaire requested that they rate the statement as followed. Spreading positive word of mouth is critical for the achievement of marketing objectives such as developing loyal customer base and online community for Nike. The findings of frequency tables indicate following trends  8% of the British marketing professionals chose strongly disagree, 15% of the British marketing professionals highlighted disagree, 8% of the British marketing professionals ticked neutral, 40% of the British marketing professionals selected agree, and 29% of the British marketing professionals rated strongly agree.

Correlation Analysis

Although the trends above confirm that there is strong relationship between content marketing, celebrity endorsement, and word of mouth in sports marketing in case of Nike, however, the results above do not provide insights about the nature and strength of relationship among these variables. Therefore, correlation analysis has been conducted. A correlation coefficient evaluates the strength and nature of change between two variables. The positive correlation or direct correlation reflected by positive sign indicates that both variables change in same direction, i.e. if one of them increases the other also shows increment and if one of them decreases the other also shows reduction. The strength of the correlation is considered to be strong if the magnitude of the correlation coefficient is higher than 0.5 and closer to 1. On the other hand, if the magnitude is less than 0.5 and closer to zero the correlation is generally considered to be weak. Following table shows correlation between independent variables (content marketing, celebrity endorsement, and word of mouth) and dependent variable (sport marketing).

The correlation between content marketing and sport marketing is (r=919, p=.000). the interpretation of this results is that there is very strong and statistically significant correlation between these quantities. Furthermore, the correlation coefficient between word of mouth and sports marketing is (r=.886, p=.000) which leads to the inference that celebrity endorsement has very strong positive correlation with sports marketing. The correlation between positive word of mouth and sport marketing is (r=.886, p=.000). The interpretation of this result is that there is very strong and statistically significant correlation between these quantities.

Although the correlation provides useful inferences about the nature and strength of relationship, still more analyses is required due to inherent limitations in correlation technique. Firstly, it only shows relationship between two variables and does not accommodate for more than two variables. Furthermore, it does not gauge the impact of one variable on another and thus it cannot be used for predictive purposes. Hence, this study also conducted regression model which is discussed in following section and overcomes the limitations.

Regression Model

The regression model shows more insights about change in a social phenomenon. There is coefficient of determination, i.e. r-square which indicates the degree of variability in the phenomenon under consideration that can be explained by given set of independent variable. As a general rule, an r-square of 0.7 or higher is considered to be statistically sound and shows adequate soundness in the model. Furthermore, there is significance value in the ANOVA table which indicates whether the model is statistically sound. If the significance value is less 0.05, then the impact of independent variables on dependent variable is statistically significant. Finally, there is the beta coefficient which determines the change in units in the dependent variable that can be expected by a unit change in the independent variable. Therefore, it gauges the impact of independent variable on dependent variable. Following table presents the regression model for the variables in this study.

The table summary shows that r-square is .895 which implies that 89.5% of variability or change in sports marketing (as dependent variable) can be explained by the independent variables (content marketing, celebrity endorsement, and word of mouth). Furthermore, the ANOVA table shows that significance level is 0.000 which indicates that the impact of independent variables is statistically significant. Furthermore, the beta coefficient for content marketing is .451 which leads to the inference that if there is a unit increase in content marketing, while assuming that all other factors remains the same, it can be predicted that sport marketing will show a positive increase by .451 units. Similarly, the beta coefficient for celebrity endorsement is .564 which leads to the inference that if there is a unit increase in celebrity endorsement, while assuming that all other factors remains the same, it can be predicted that sport marketing will show a positive increase by .564 units. Finally, the beta coefficient for word of mouth is -.049 which leads to the inference that if there is a unit increase in word of mouth, while assuming that all other factors remains the same, it can be predicted that sport marketing will show a decrease by .049 units. The impact of content marketing and celebrity endorsement are consistent with past literature while the negative impact of word of mouth is inconsistent with general findings in literature which shows that word of mouth has positive impact.

Reliability – Cronbach’s Alpha

The table below presents the reliability with respect to internal consistency of questionnaire items used in this study. Typically the internal consistency is considered to be high and demonstrates adequate reliability if the Cronbach’s alpha is at least 0.7 or higher. This study found that there is high level of internal consistency in the questionnaire because the Cronbach alpha is .98 which is very high reliability.

Interview Results

Focus of content of social media marketing by nike.

Many participants stated that the content of Nike social media is focused on brand image and customer self-image.  Consider the following statement

People wear Nike and go to events and then they upload their selfies! They want to relate them with Nike.

Similar conclusions have been drawn by Cornwell and Kwon, (2019) who argued that people can develop a sense of belongingness with online community and the central brand by relating their taste and preferences with the products and services of the company. In fact, the analysis makes it possible to examine the concept of self and identify motivations of consumers towards buying of brand merchandise.

Another participant made following statement,

This use of brands, in line with a real self-image, was mentioned by Nufer (2016). Indeed, although several studies mentioned having a particular interest in a luxury brands, many of them considers these brands as being directly linked to their identity. It should be noted that they are “fan” to regularly buy products from a luxury brand (the others mainly mentioned buying luxury goods through counterfeits and democratized products such as accessories, shoes and beauty products). It is also the oldest participant and having reached a certain social status through their employment as well as their financial means.

In addition, another participant stated,

Now there is a culture that shows an ideal image which can be achieved through use of popular brands or luxury brand

The same conclusion have been presented by Brown, Anderson, and Dickhaus, (2016) who argued that the cultural notion would play a role in the importance given to luxury brands as well as in the social valuation attributed to associating one’s identity with that of luxury houses. People therefore justify tier desire to reflect a prestigious ideal self, among other things.

Consider another statement,

“Exclusivity is sure and certain […] the effect of scarcity […] being different from the others”.

The statement above can be related to King, et al, (2012) who posited that people desire to be associated with these brands on Facebook comes directly from their need to project a positive image to others and to perpetuate this image of a person of confidence. Therefore, it can be said that the content the Nike generates and the content that Nike encourage consumers to generate is focused on creating a link between brand image and people own self-image. With this sentence, participant demonstrated the desire to establish, via Facebook, an ideal social self through luxury brands. For people, accessing the communities of these brands allows them to strengthen the image that she owns them and that she, too, is prestigious.

Furthermore, the marketing professionals also mentioned that Nike attempts to raise brand awareness by encouraging followers to upload content about its products and services.

“Many users upload pictures of Nike products and indirectly promote these while trying to propagate self-image”

Similar assertion is made by Serazio, (2019) who concluded that while some followers associate the brand with their identity on Facebook simply by integrating their virtual community, others comment on their status, love their photos, share their content or clearly stage the brand on their personal page using techniques visual. In fact, two informants substituted their profile photo (the one most directly linked to the identity of the individual who owns the Facebook page) in order to show an image of a brand. Thus, by appropriating the images of luxury brands and generating their own personalized story with the brand, these participants try to accentuate the link between the brand and the self in order to promote the ideal social self.

Engagement by Nike

Many interviewees indicated that Nike social media encourage engagement by triggering interest of followers as well as their curiosity. For example one of the professionals opined,

“There are several intrinsic motivations for users to follow Nike social media. There is entertainment, news, exciting new offers/products, etc.”

Many researchers indicate that brands use social media to engage followers and customers. Followers subscribing to the brand’s Facebook page specifically to access the information it offers, for entertainment as well as for interest and curiosity. Indeed, for them, behaviour is also intrinsically motivated since the activity is carried out for the satisfaction it generates, the pleasure as well as the content it offers (Kunkel and Biscaia, 2020).

Consider another statement

“I think majority of the followers are there to get information and infotainment”

Similarly, McCormick, (2018) argued that the desire to acquire information is an intrinsic need related to knowledge and mentioned by many respondents. In addition, various anticipated consequences underlying this need were mentioned by informants such as the desire to learn to buy, to maintain a blog and to be informed about new products.

Consider another excerpt,

“It’s really to keep up with the latest news.” ” I’m sure consumers feed on this information, that’s why they subscribe to these types of pages.”

The need for general knowledge of brands is highlighted here in addition to a desire to acquire specific information. For example, the desire to obtain information about the brand is a motivating factor for consumers since they frequently mention the same. In addition, it justifies its adhesion and its desire for information by another need which can, for its part can also be considered as extrinsic that is to feed a blog on fashion. Therefore, for consumers, these pages are a source of reliable information on the brands that she can use to maintain her own page (Nufer, 2016).

Finally, following statement sums the intrinsic motivation and engagement.

“Facebook is going to keep me posted on what’s going on there on Nike […] I’m going to get information and then shop around with it.”

According to Huang and Hsu, (2017) for participants purchasing luxury brand products, the desire to be informed about new products may also be in the perspective of purchasing these goods. Thus, they no longer need to regularly go to the store to find out about product offers since they can now observe them directly on their news feed.

Entertainment

Entertainment was also mentioned by some professionals as the attraction for consumers. Consider the following statement,

“For people the social media pages have transformed into magazines. You log on to the page and then scroll through so much that each brand shares a photo”.

The similar conclusions have been put by McCarthy, (2016) who argued that in order to occupy their free time and have fun, consumers can indulge in all kinds of activities related to brands. Some subscribe to fashion magazines, allowing them to observe trends and see the brands’ product offerings while others window shop. For participants, the brand pages on Facebook offer them the possibility of carrying out these two activities, without any time constraints. A Facebook page is primarily a place of entertainment. Indeed, rather than using paid and paper magazines, this participant uses her Facebook page to distract herself and to reach the various fashion images of the many luxury brands of which she is a “fan”. For her, as for other participants, her own Facebook page gives her direct access to the world of brands and allows her to relax while watching a variety of content.

Similar statement made by another participant is,

For participants, the brand page provides entertaining content that allows them to relax. The fun aspect of the brand’s videos also attracts Florence since she says

Furthermore, one of the participants stated,

“Nike and other brands attract attention of consumer by sharing their enthusiasm for sports and celebrities and therefore the brands try to link and relate with customers”

The aforementioned element has been mentioned by many studies such as Saari and Tuominen, (2016) who argued that it is critical for social media marketing to establish relationship between target consumers and brand products and services. The basic idea is to depict that the brand shares the same feelings and excitement with the customers regarding the sports. Therefore, customer stay connected with the brands.

Impact of Social Media

Another important theme in the interview discussions was to understand and explore the impact of social media on sports marketing. Although, previous themes show that social media shows its impact in terms of connection, relating, and engaging the brands with customers through targeted content, interest, infotainment, and sports enthusiasm, however, the basic purposes of marketing is to affect the buying behaviour. Following discussion provides evidence regarding impact of social media on buying behaviour of Nike customers from the perspective of professionals in the UK. Consider the following excerpt,

Nike definitely wants social media marketing to have effects on buying behaviour. The basic purpose is to enhance loyalty and positive buying decisions.

Majority of the literature on social media marketing is focused on identifying its impact on buying behaviour. According to Nufer (2016) within the context of sports marketing, the purpose of social media is to engage the customers to the brand and its products. The brand provide product details and other information for customers in different and innovating ways so that they can enhance brand image in the minds of customers and the idea is to make customers recall when making buying decisions.

Another participant expressed the impact of social media in following words,

“One of the main fundamental purpose of social media for any company including Nike is to drive sales. This can be achieved by identifying needs of customers and then providing relevant content that affects their buying decision”

The aforementioned aspect is also frequently cited in literature. According to Kunkel and Biscaia, (2020) social media generates significant and valuable content for marketers and businesses. Since users are able to generate their own content, therefore the content can be used to identify unmet needs of customers as well as change in buying preferences.

Another important aspect of impact of social media was reflected in following statement,

“Social media has much wider reach to people as compared to traditional media. People have access to social media content in their personal phones, thus it can be used to reach individuals”

There is significant amount of literature that shows the ability of social media to personalise the marketing and advertising content for target customers. According to McCarthy (2016) social media communities develop by people with common interest and common characteristics. Businesses can identify their interests and characteristics and adapt their products so that people feel more relevant with the brand and its products. This is an important objective of branding strategy.

Finally, it is important to highlight an important impact of social media advertising which is reflected in the following statement,

“for me the most important impact of social media on sports marketing is the cost efficiency marketing effectiveness. Social media is cheaper as compared to traditional media. Imagine the cost of conducting a simple survey among millions of consumers without social media”

The cost efficiency of social media marketing has been widely discussed and generally the researchers agree that it provides higher cost efficiency and higher return on investment as compared to traditional advertising media. According to Saari and Tuominen (2016) although the measurement and evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness as well as return on investment of marketing and advertising is non-definitive generally, however, it can be fairly opined that social media has some unique characteristics such as wider reach, two way communication, etc. which makes its more cost and resource efficient as compared to traditional media. However, the study also highlighted a number of risks such as a corporate scandal going viral and having adverse impact on brand.

The quantitative results show that social media marketing has significant impact on sports marketing. This is based on the finding that celebrity marketing, content marketing, and positive word of mouth are important aspects of social media marketing within the context of Nike and these affect the buying behavior consumers. The internal consistency of the questionnaire is high which adds to the reliability and validity of the findings. This provides answer to the main research objectives of this study. Furthermore, the interview results confirm that the focus of content marketing by Nike is on encouraging customer involvement and spreading positive word of mouth as well as to develop a community that creates a sense of belongingness. Furthermore, entertainment and infotainment are also major aspects of Nike’s social media marketing. The results of interviews are generally consistent with past studies which also adds to the reliability of this study. A number of recommendations have been made in the next chapter to answer the final research objective.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The aim of this study was to analysis the impact of social media advertising on sports marketing within the context of Nike in the UK. Using the statistics exhibited, this inquisition substantiates that social media content is most important element of digital marketing success of Nike. Furthermore, from the discussions yielded, this work proclaims that the content on Nike social media platforms is coherent and consistent with its strategic marketing objectives. Additionally, taking into account the inferences furnished, this investigation records that the content of Nike’s social media is focused on developing community of loyal customers. Moreover, grounded on the details discovered, this investigation testifies that Nike effectively uses social media content for advertising and marketing of its products and brand. In addition, taking into account the analysis secured, this inquisition endorses that celebrity endorsement is long lasting tradition maintained by Nike both in traditional as well as digital social media marketing strategies.

In addition, grounded on the deductions yielded, this investigation deduces that celebrity endorsement contributes towards creating online community and developing sense of loyalty towards its brand. Furthermore, in view of the evidences produced, this investigation substantiates that celebrity endorsement helps Nike to transform passion and love of fans of celebrities into favourable buying behaviour and customer loyalty. Moreover, considering the discussions procured, this work ratifies that it is safe to assume that Nike uses the celebrity endorsement strategy effectively in its marketing campaigns.

Moreover, using the facts secured, this inquisition recognises that positive recommendations made by friends and family in social networks are more trusted and accepted by consumers as compared to other advertising. Also, from the analysis gathered, this inquiry derives that positive word of mouth increases the intention to buying and favourable consumer behaviour such repeat purchase. Additionally, taking into account the statistics collected, this inquisition explains that the content on social media platforms of Nike is generally positive and favourable for its marketing objectives. Additionally, in the light of the statistics provided, this work deduces that Nike has a powerful customer engagement such as ‘@Nikesupport’ to enhance positive word of mouth.

Additionally, based on the empirical data brought forth, this inquiry exhibits that social media has become an essential feature of sports marketing firms such as Nike. Moreover, in view of the analysis presented, this investigation supports that the success of social media based sports marketing is heavily relied upon the content quality. Furthermore, in the light of the deductions put up, this research denotes that celebrity endorsement is a customary and effective marketing strategy for sports merchandise firms such as Nike. Furthermore, in view of the arguments secured, this investigation testifies that spreading positive word of mouth is critical for the achievement of marketing objectives such as developing loyal customer base and online community for Nike.

Recommendations

Although, it can be observed in the general literature that Nike has a successful social media marketing strategy, however, there is always room for improvement. Following are some of the recommendations derived from general literature:

• It is recommended to promote more research on the theory of Uses and Gratifications since there is not much information on the subject, much less updated research. Nike should use various instruments such as customer motivation and satisfaction surveys to identify the unmet needs of its loyal consumers and develop more promotional strategies (Green, 2016)
• Furthermore, it is recommended that it has been observed that Nike invests millions of dollars in marketing and therefore it can be recommended that there is a need to achieve higher efficiency. Nike can use data and information provided to its social media pages by consumers and use data analytics tools to achieve more efficiency (Nichols and Gardner, 2017)
• In addition, it is also recommended that Nike can use artificial intelligence tools and techniques to enhance its marketing strategy. For example, AI-enhanced PPC advertising is a tool that can be used to enhance marketing effects and optimise marketing budget on social media web pages such as Facebook (Karppinen, 2016).
• The Nike positions itself in different targets and takes into account the particularities of each country. For example, in the United States basketball and American football are stronger than soccer. In addition, Nike is in different sports disciplines and is also an event sponsor. Thus, it encompasses people who practice different sports and has made everyone feel part of the same community. In this way, in digital strategy it has differentiated its segments by disciplines such as “Nike Football” or “Nike Basketball”. This segmentation for content marketing manages to provide each buyer person with what they need depending on their interests. Hence, more segmentation focused on identifying niche products can be used to enhance content marketing strategy (Zhou, et al., 2016).
• Nike empowers its audience to create their own personalized content. In other words, it gives the consumer the opportunity to design their own sports shoes according to their style. Thus, it manages to make users feel part of the brand and its values. In fact, through personalization, it manages to generate a feeling of belonging and relevance to the company. In Nike’s strategy consumer tastes and interests are key, allowing them to create their own footwear. Thus, it reaches the emotions and feelings of the clients, feeling part of a shared project. It is recommended that Nike should improve this strategy by developing promotions and social media influencers and celebrities that are most effective for the company as compared to sports celebrities (Teo, 2019).
• There is also a need for the reorientation of sports sponsorship. This new reality has triggered a real war between Nike, and its main competitor Adidas, for sponsoring the best clubs in the world. One of the effects of this reorientation of sports sponsorship to clubs is the high figures that will be paid for such sponsorship, which will require a long time for the investment to be profitable. For all these reasons, we insist that the decades-long alliances allow sports firms to better monetize their investments, which in the case of large teams have been triggered by increasing economic demands (Ratten, et al., 2016).

Future Research

Although, this study is based on mixed method using both secondary and primary sources of data, and depicts adequate level of reliability and validity, yet, there are some inherent limitations in the methodology and scope of this study. These limitations present future research opportunities. First among the methodological limitations is the small sample size of data collection process for both quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence. Furthermore, the evidence has been gathered from marketing professionals only which shows that the sample lacks diversity. Although the marketing professional’s insights are important and valuable yet, the research literature would also benefit from perspective and opinions of other stakeholders, particularly consumers, athletes, fans, and other stakeholders. Therefore, it is recommended that future researcher may conduct the same methodology with bigger and larger scale survey and more interview participants as well as with more diversified sample participants. In addition, this study was focused on assessing the impact of social media while using only three indicators, i.e. content marketing, word of mouth, and celebrity endorsement, however, there are also other factors of social media that must be determined and included in future research projects. In addition, this study was based on case study of Nike which is a multinational company which invests millions of dollars in marketing and has shown significant success in social media marketing. But the results cannot be equally applicable in case of SMEs. Hence there are opportunities for future researchers to gather evidence regarding SMEs and assess the impact of social media marketing on sport marketing in SMEs context also.       

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Kalu, F. (2019).  The Impact Of Social Media Influencer Marketing On Purchase Intention From An Irish Male Millennial’s Perception: A Case Study Of Irish Fashion Industry  (Doctoral dissertation, Dublin, National College of Ireland).

Karppinen, E. (2016). Sports sponsorship as a channel for brand engagement on social media.

King, A. B., Kulick, N. L., Eroshenko, P., and Jaskoviak, T. K. (2016). Developing a Marketing Plan for Legends Sports Leagues.

Klevtcova, A. (2018). Sport marketing: Coopertion of sport organizations with Russian athletes.

Kunkel, T., and Biscaia, R. (2020). Sport brands: brand relationships and consumer behavior.  Sport Marketing Quarterly ,  29 (1), 3-17.

Legg, D., and Dottori, M. (2017). Marketing and sponsorship at the Paralympic Games. In  Managing the Paralympics  (pp. 263-288). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Leng, H. K. (2017). Sponsor recall in sports events of short duration: empirical evidence from swimming competitions.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

Lyons, T. E. (2017). Marketing and social media content strategies for mid-major Division I athletic departments.

Madej, A. (2019).  The Role of Marketing Communication In Recognition of The Global Brand: A Case Study of Nike  (Doctoral dissertation, Empire State College).

Maderer, D., Parganas, P., and Anagnostopoulos, C. (2018). Brand-image communication through social media: The case of European professional football clubs.  International Journal of Sport Communication ,  11 (3), 319-338.

Manna, Y. (2019). Examining Consumer-Purchasing Behaviour Towards Valuable Sportswear Brands: The Social Representation Theory Perspective.

McCarthy, S. T. (2016). It’s All About Me: How Self-Brand Connection and Social Media Interactivity Influence Purchase Intent.

McCormick, K. (2018). Impact of athletic star power on product consumption.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

McKelvey, S., and Grady, J. (2017). # JoinTheConversation: The evolving legal landscape of using hashtags in sport.  J. Legal Aspects Sport ,  27 , 90.

Mittal, A., and Manavalan, A. (2017). The IPL Model: Sports Marketing and Product Placement Sponsorship.  International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention , 44-61.

Newman, T., Peck, J., and Wilhide, B. (2017).  Social media in sport marketing . Routledge.

Nichols, B. S., and Gardner, J. (2017). Corporate reputation and cause-related marketing in professional sports: The case of devon still and the cincinnati bengals.  Sport Marketing Quarterly ,  26 (3), 168-175.

Nichols, B. S., Cobbs, J., and Tyler, B. D. (2019). Rival team effects in cause-related sports marketing.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

Nikodimou, V., and Dimitrakopoulou, P. (2019). The Power of Marketing in the Industry of Sports.

Nufer, G. (2016). Ambush marketing in sports: an attack on sponsorship or innovative marketing?.  Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal .

Nufer, G. (2016). Sports events and social media marketing.

Oliveira, D. M. D. S. D. M. (2019).  Sponsorship in sports marketing: the effects of sports sponsorship on football fans’ sponsor awareness, exposure, attitude, perceived congruence, purchase intentions and simultaneous sponsorship with a rival club  (Doctoral dissertation).

Padgett, D. K. (2016).  Qualitative methods in social work research  (Vol. 36). Sage Publications.

Phillips, K. K. (2019). The relationship between the use of social networking sites and student spectator behaviour: A case of university sport in the Western Cape.

Phua, J., Pan, P. L., and Chen, K. J. (2018). Sport team-endorsed brands on Facebook.  Online Information Review .

Popp, B., and Woratschek, H. (2016). Sport, Social Media and Online Communities.  When Sport Meets Business: Capabilities, Challenges, Critiques , 120.

Popp, B., Horbel, C., and Germelmann, C. C. (2018). Social-media-based antibrand communities opposing sport-team sponsors: Insights from two prototypical communities.  International Journal of Sport Communication ,  11 (3), 339-368.

Pourazad, N., Stocchi, L., and Pare, V. (2019). The power of brand passion in sports apparel brands.  Journal of Product & Brand Management .

Prather, D. (2018).  How NBA teams use twitter as a brand management tool  (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri–Columbia).

Ratten, V., Madichie, N., Jensen, J. A., Wakefield, L., Cobbs, J. B., and Turner, B. A. (2016). Forecasting sponsorship costs: marketing intelligence in the athletic apparel industry.  Marketing Intelligence & Planning .

Richelieu, A. (2016). Sport teams’ brands going international: The ‘Integrated Marketing Strategy on the Internationalisation in Sport’(IMSIS).  Journal of Brand Strategy ,  5 (2), 218-231.

Ristevska-Jovanovska, S. (2017). AN EFFECTIVE VIRAL MARKETING STRATEGIES.  Research in Physical Education, Sport & Health ,  6 (1).

Ristevska-Jovanovska, S. (2018). UNCONVENTIONAL MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS.  Knowledge International Journal ,  23 (4), 987-992.

Rowe, W. J., Moore, M. E., and Zemanek Jr, J. E. (2019). Three-tiered sponsorship: a study of decision heuristics across multiple levels of sport sponsorship.  Innovative Marketing ,  9 (2).

Saari, J., and Tuominen, J. (2016). The Use of Social Media in Sports Marketing: The Case of Nordic Ice Hockey Clubs.

Sande, A. V. D. (2019).  Influence of Celebrity Athletes on the Sportswear Industry: An analysis of influencers’ impact on Nike and Adidas brand image  (Doctoral dissertation).

Sanderson, A. R., and Siegfried, J. J. (2018). The role of broadcasting in national collegiate athletic association sports.  Review of Industrial Organization ,  52 (2), 305-321.

Scelles, N., Helleu, B., Durand, C., Bonnal, L., and Morrow, S. (2017). Explaining the number of social media fans for North American and European professional sports clubs with determinants of their financial value.  International Journal of Financial Studies ,  5 (4), 25.

Schlereth, N. G., and Frederick, E. (2017). Going for gold: Social media and the USOC.  J. Legal Aspects Sport ,  27 , 19.

Schmidt, S., Limbach, M., Langner, S., Wiedmann, K. P., Albertsen, L., and Reiter, P. (2018). Official sports sponsorship fortress vs ambush marketing attack.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

Schoombee, J., and Bick, G. (2018).  Reebok rebrands: Corporate and marketing strategies in the south african sporting goods industry . Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town.

Serazio, M. (2019).  The power of sports: Media and spectacle in American culture . NYU Press.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016).  Qualitative research . Sage.

Sobande, F. (2019). Woke-washing:“Intersectional” femvertising and branding “woke” bravery.  European Journal of Marketing .

Stavros, C., and Smith, A. C. (2019).  Sport branding insights . Routledge.

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

Teo, D. D. W. (2019).  Antecedents of consumer’s attitude towards social media influencer & its impact on purchase intention  (Doctoral dissertation, UTAR).

Toffoletti, K. (2016). Analyzing media representations of sportswomen—Expanding the conceptual boundaries using a postfeminist sensibility.  Sociology of Sport Journal ,  33 (3), 199-207.

Vimieiro, A. C. (2017). Sports journalism, supporters and new technologies: Challenging the usual complicity between media and football institutions.  Digital Journalism ,  5 (5), 567-586.

Volozova, E. (2016). Effectiveness of Sports Sponsorship and Athletes’ Endorsement as Brand Communication Tools.  Unpublished Bsc. Thesis .

Vredenburg, J., and Giroux, M. (2018). What did Ryan Lochte do? The double-edged sword of endorsers behaving badly.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

Walliman, N. (2015).  Social research methods: The essentials . Sage.

White, D., White, C., and White, D. (2017). Sponsorship-linked marketing: Using social media brand affinity data to determine sport sponsorship effectiveness.

Wolfsteiner, E., Grohs, R., and Reisinger, H. (2019). The impact of name and shame disclosure strategies on sponsor and ambusher brand attitude.  Journal of Business Research .

Youn, S., and Jin, S. V. (2017). Reconnecting with the past in social media: The moderating role of social influence in nostalgia marketing on Pinterest.  Journal of Consumer Behaviour ,  16 (6), 565-576.

Zhang, J. J., Kim, E., Mastromartino, B., Qian, T. Y., and Nauright, J. (2018). The sport industry in growing economies: critical issues and challenges.  International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship .

Zhou, F., Mou, J., Su, Q., and Wu, Y. C. J. (2020). How does consumers’ Perception of Sports Stars’ Personal Brand Promote Consumers’ brand love? A mediation model of global brand equity.  Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services ,  54 , 102012.

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Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

How Feeling Like a Minority Affects Preferences for Autonomous Digital Interfaces , Ye Seul Kim

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Spillover Effects in Product Customization , Samuel Babu Sekar

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

External and Internal Factors of Sports Sponsorship Selling Cycles in North American Professional Sports , Dan Kaufmann

Increasing Personal and Product Influence Through Background Auditory and Visual Cues , Zhihao Yu

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

The Effects of Product Recalls on Competitors’ Market Value and Recalling Firm’s Reputation , Dong Liu

Corporate Brand Impact on Sales / Revenue Per Share , Brad A. Puckey

Competition in Upstream Humanitarian Supply Chain: Investigation of Food Banks , Iana Shaheen

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

How Digital versus Non-Digital Modes of Food Ordering Influence Menu Healthfulness Perceptions and Food Choices , Annika Abell

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

The Impact of Digital Marketing Decisions on Market Outcomes in Residential Real Estate , Denise Hunter Gravatt

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Hate is a Strong Word: The Influence of Hate-Acknowledging Advertising on Brand Outcomes , Lisa Monahan

The Effects of Loneliness on Consumers’ Digital Engagement with Social Media Ads , Yu Qin

Product Shadows and Ad Evaluations , Nazuk Sharma

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Understanding the Complexity of Product Returns Management: A Complex Adaptive Systems Theory Perspective , Jennifer Anne Espinosa

Branding Implications of Co-Created Social Responsibility , Alexander J. Kull

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

How You Categorize Influences How Helpful You Are: The Effect of Categorization Mindset on Consumers’ Social Decisions , Hsiao-Ching Kuo

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Taken for Granted or Taken with Gratitude? An Examination of the Differential Effects of Donations of Time and Money on Consumers' Evaluation of Corporate Philanthropy , Ryan Langan

Essays on Consumer's Psychological and Behavioral Responses toward Social Coupons , Chinintorn Nakhata

Muscling Consumers to Optimal Option Differentiation: The Influence of Incidental Muscular Sensations on Option Differentiation , Courtney Szocs

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Essays on Mental Accounting and Consumers' Decision Making , Ali Besharat

Perceived Firm Transparency: Scale and Model Development , Jennifer Dapko

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

Antecedents and Consequences of Channel Alienation: An Empirical Investigation within Franchised Channels of Distribution , Ivan Lapuka

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

An Empirical Examination of the Dark Side of Relationship Marketing within a Business to Business Context , Brent L. Baker

Developing the Nomological Network of Perceived Corporate Affinity for Technology: A Three Essay Dissertation , David Earl Fleming

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Self-Directed Learning: Measures and Models for Salesperson Training and Development , Stefanie Leigh Boyer

Emotional Exhaustion and Its Role in Service Sabotage among Boundary Spanners , Diane R. Edmondson

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Essays on multiple identities and motivated consumption: Exploring the role of identity centrality on self-brand connections , Tracy R. Harmon

The impact of organizational climate variables of perceived organizational support, workplace isolation, and ethical climate on salesperson psychological and behavioral work outcomes , Robert J. Riggle

Theses/Dissertations from 2005 2005

The Effect of Perceived Entitativity on Implicit Image Transfer in Multiple Sponsorships , FrancoÌ?is Anthony Carrillat

Theses/Dissertations from 2004 2004

Relationship Advertising: Investigating the Strategic Appeal of Intimacy (Disclosure) in Services Marketing , Andrea Diahann Gaye Scott

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Digital marketing is the process of marketing the products and services of any individual or business via digital and social media channels to attract internet users. It provides all sizes of businesses with an excellent route to increase money and also helps them to achieve popularity.  

If you are a digital marketing student, you must submit a dissertation on your interests in this area. Writing a dissertation on digital marketing might be difficult, especially if you don't have a clear approach or structure for your work.

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We'll guide you through the process of writing a digital marketing dissertation, starting with the importance of planning your thesis statement.

We'll discuss a thesis statement, why it's important, and how you can create an effective one for your digital marketing dissertation. By following these guidelines, you'll be well on your way to producing a high-quality dissertation demonstrating your expertise in the field. 

Visit our digital marketing dissertation examples below:

Example: 1   Impact of Digital Marketing in Generating High Customer Base

Example: 2   Impact of Social Media Marketing on Customer Buying Behaviour Note : Below is a complete guide with some more examples and tips for you to ace the skill of dissertation writing in economics.

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What is Digital Marketing Dissertation?  

A digital marketing dissertation is an academic analysis report that focuses on the field. A dissertation on digital marketing involves conducting an initial analysis to answer a research question. It may include a literature review, data analysis , case studies, and other research methods to support the writer's argument or analysis.

The topic of a digital marketing dissertation can vary widely. It may include social media marketing , search engine optimisation, mobile marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and other digital marketing strategies and tactics.

The purpose of the dissertation is to demonstrate the student's critical thinking and ability. The end result is a contribution to digital marketing, providing insights, recommendations or original discoveries that can further advance the industry.

Examples of digital marketing dissertations might assist you in determining the best match for your thesis for your degree. We provide examples of bachelor's, master's, and doctoral dissertations to help you select the ideal one. 

Bachelor Digital Marketing Dissertation Ideas

• The Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Awareness: A Case Study
• The Use of Email Marketing in the Travel Industry: A Case Study of Customer Engagement and Satisfaction
• The Impact of Mobile Marketing on Consumer Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis
• The Role of Content Marketing in B2B Lead Generation: A Case Study of a Tech Company
• The Impact of Influencer Marketing on Consumer Trust: A Study of the Beauty Industry
• The Use of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in Small Business Marketing: A Comparative Study of Local Businesses 

Master Digital Marketing Dissertation Examples 

• The Effectiveness of Social Media Advertising: A Study of Consumer Behaviour on Facebook and Instagram
• The Role of Personalisation in Email Marketing: A Study of Customer Engagement and Loyalty
• The Impact of Video Marketing on Brand Awareness: A Comparative Analysis of YouTube and TikTok
• The Use of Chatbots in Customer Service: A Study of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty
• The Impact of Augmented Reality (AR) on Consumer Engagement: A Study of the Retail Industry
• The Use of Data Analytics in Marketing Strategy: A Study of Big Data and Machine Learning 

Doctoral Digital Marketing Dissertation Examples 

• The Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Digital Marketing Strategy: A Study of Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics
• The Use of Virtual Reality (VR) in Digital Advertising: A Study of Consumer Engagement and Brand Recall
• The Role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in E-commerce: A Study of Personalisation and Loyalty Programs
• The Impact of User-Generated Content (UGC) on Brand Equity: A Study of Social Media Platforms
• The Use of Blockchain Technology in Digital Marketing: A Study of Security and Trust
• The Impact of Omnichannel Marketing on Customer Experience: A Study of Retail and E-commerce Industries 

Why is a thesis important to your digital marketing dissertation?

A digital marketing thesis requires extensive research, analysis, and critical thinking. A strong thesis statement is one of the most crucial elements of a successful research paper. 

It is the foundation of your dissertation, providing a roadmap for your research and guiding your writing and analysis.

Let's get into the detail of why the thesis statement is significant.

Guides Your Research

A clear and specific thesis statement provides a clear point of view of your research and helps you stay focused on your main research objectives. It provides a framework for your literature review and empirical studies relevant to your research. Also, a clear statement helps you to identify the most appropriate research methodology for your study. 

Define the Scope of Your Study

Defining the scope of your study is a critical aspect of writing any dissertation, and your thesis statement plays an essential role in this process. Your thesis statement should clearly define the boundaries of your study. This includes the specific topics you will explore, the research questions you aim to answer, and the research methods you will use.

Demonstrating Your Contribution

A thesis statement plays a critical role in demonstrating your contribution to the field. Your thesis statement should clearly articulate your original contribution to knowledge or practice in the area of digital marketing. It is essential because a dissertation is not just a summary of existing research; it should contribute new knowledge or insights to the field.

Sets the Tone for Your Dissertation

The tone of your dissertation should be professional, academic , and objective. Your thesis statement should reflect this tone and be written clearly and concisely, avoiding subjective or emotional language. It sets the stage for the rest of your dissertation. This is by providing the reader with a roadmap of what to expect and your research.

Digital Marketing Dissertation Example: A Case Study 

Topic: The Role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in E-commerce: A Study of Personalisation and Loyalty Programs

This study examines the role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in e-commerce, specifically focusing on the impact of personalisation and loyalty programs on customer loyalty. With increasing competition in the e-commerce industry, businesses must maintain strong relationships with their customers. This study uses the quantitative approach, which involves data collection from online surveys conducted on a sample of e-commerce customers. The study reveals that personalisation and loyalty programs have a positive impact on customer loyalty in e-commerce. Furthermore, the study also highlights the importance of effectively implementing CRM strategies in e-commerce businesses to achieve a competitive advantage. This study contributes to the existing literature on CRM in e-commerce. It provides practical implications for e-commerce businesses to enhance their customer relationships and loyalty.

Literature Review 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an important research topic in digital marketing, particularly in e-commerce. Personalisation and loyalty programs are two key CRM components that impact customer loyalty in e-commerce. Personalisation can increase customer engagement and loyalty, while loyalty programs incentivise repeat purchases and reward loyal customers. Research suggests that CRM, particularly personalisation and loyalty programs, can significantly impact customer loyalty in e-commerce. But e-commerce businesses must implement effective CRM strategies that balance personalisation with privacy concerns and design loyalty programs that are relevant and meaningful to their customers.

Methodology 

The research methodology for this study on the role of customer relationship management (CRM) in e-commerce, specifically focusing on personalisation and loyalty programs, is a quantitative approach. Data collection involves an online survey distributed to a sample of e-commerce customers who have made at least one purchase from the selected e-commerce websites. The sample size for this study consists of 500 e-commerce customers who have made at least one purchase from the selected e-commerce websites. Data analysis examines the relationship between personalisation, loyalty programs, and customer loyalty. Ethical considerations include obtaining informed consent from the participants, ensuring confidentiality and anonymity of the participants, and adhering to ethical guidelines for research involving human subjects. Limitations of this study include convenience sampling, which may not represent the entire population of e-commerce customers, and the potential for response bias.

This study finds that personalisation and loyalty programs positively impact customer loyalty in e-commerce. These strategies enhance customer satisfaction, increase customer loyalty, and improve business performance. However, this study has limitations, such as convenience sampling and response bias. Future research should consider using a more representative sample and exploring additional CRM strategies.

Conclusion  

This guide provides valuable insight into planning a strong thesis statement for a digital marketing dissertation. The thesis statement is essential to a dissertation as it guides the research, sets the tone, and demonstrates the study's contribution. By following these steps, you can create a clear and concise thesis statement highlighting the research question and the key objectives of the dissertation. Additionally, this guide emphasises the importance of conducting a thorough literature review, defining the scope of the study, and selecting an appropriate research methodology. In addition, this guide includes examples of bachelor's, master's, and PhD digital marketing dissertations that can serve as a helpful reference for you.

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Blog Business

5 Marketing Proposal Examples to Elevate your Business

By Tobi Ojenike , Aug 10, 2023

Marketing proposals have become an essential tool for success in today’s competitive business environment. As a business, there are various marketing proposal examples that you can look at, learn from and use to build yours.

Creating persuasive marketing proposals goes beyond a sales pitch. They show you understand the client’s goals and can deliver results.

But writing them can be tricky! You need to stand out, be relevant and stay professional. Trust me, I’ve been there – and my secret weapon? Venngage’s marketing proposal templates ! They take the guesswork out of the process, so you can focus on crafting a proposal that screams “we’re the perfect team for you!”

Click to jump ahead:

• A well thought out, well-designed marketing proposal should be

5 Marketing proposal examples

What should a marketing proposal include, what are the common mistakes to avoid in a marketing proposal, marketing proposal examples faqs, how to create a marketing proposal with venngage in 6 steps, a well thought out, well-designed marketing proposal should be:.

A carefully considered and well-designed proposal explains your strategy, solutions and how they meet the client’s goals (basically, everything you need to win them over). A winning marketing proposal should be: 

• Comprehensive
• Data driven
• Clear and concise

Now that you have an understanding of what a marketing proposal is and what it should have, let us dive into the different examples of marketing proposals.

Want to write winning marketing proposals? See how it’s done in the examples below that are packed with creative tactics to land your next client.

1. Digital marketing proposal example

A digital marketing proposal is a strategic, in-depth document that lays out a thorough strategy to improve an organization’s online presence, engage its intended target market and spur commercial growth. 

Using methods such as search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media management, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, email campaigns and website user experience improvements, this kind of proposal serves as a  marketing road map  to demonstrate the marketer’s skills. It emphasizes quantifiable goals, financial allotment, a schedule and key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness of the suggested digital marketing campaign. 

For example, this proposal attempts to capture potential clients and forge fruitful collaborations by putting a strong emphasis on customized solutions. This marketing proposal example is great for small businesses.

Planning an offline marketing event instead? These event proposal templates might come in handy.

2. Social media campaign proposal example

A social media campaign proposal is a compelling document that is skillfully written and lays out a thorough strategy for utilizing social media platforms to accomplish particular marketing goals. 

A social media campaign proposal often includes strategies, content suggestions and advertising techniques. The proposal demonstrates the marketer’s talent for creating effective social media campaigns with an emphasis on raising brand awareness, increasing website traffic and encouraging meaningful interactions. 

This proposal intends to attract potential clients and win their support with data-driven insights and quantifiable KPIs. Here are some examples of a social media campaign proposal that you could use:

Pitching for your next brand management client? Craft winning proposals with our brand management proposal templates . They easily showcase your understanding, strategies and the impact you’ll deliver.

3. Website design proposal example

A website design proposal is a carefully produced document that outlines a detailed strategy for developing or redesigning a website in line with the client’s brand identity and corporate goals. 

This proposal demonstrates the web designer’s proficiency in technical implementation, visual design and user experience (UX) to produce a smooth and visually appealing online platform. It provides details on the project’s scope, schedule, deliverables and budget as well as insights into the design process and overall strategy.

Take a look at our carefully curated template as a creative compass:

A strong graphic design proposal highlights the value the designer brings to the client’s business while showcasing the designer’s expertise and creativity. You can also consider showcasing a portfolio of relevant past work and testimonials to build trust and confidence. Envision the stunning graphics you can create by taking a cue from this template:

5. Influencer marketing proposal example

An influencer marketing proposal is a document created by marketing agencies to pitch collaboration opportunities to brands or businesses. This proposal outlines the campaign’s goals, target market, proposed influencers, content suggestions and anticipated results.

The proposal aims to demonstrate the influencer’s suitability for promoting the brand’s products or services and outlines the terms of the partnership, such as compensation, timeline and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the campaign’s success. 

The goal of the influencer marketing proposal is to persuade potential customers of the efficiency of influencer collaborations in increasing brand visibility and fostering engagement with their target audience. 

With the help of our hand-picked collection of engaging influencer design proposal examples, you are off to a great start.

Ready to tackle more projects? Dive into our project proposal template library ! Find pre-built templates to jumpstart your next winning proposal.

Here’s a general outline of what a marketing proposal should include:

This is a brief of the main aspects of the plan. It highlights the information contained in the proposal and gives a quick look into some of the strategies, the complexities of the schedule, and the objectives that will indicate the project’s advancement. This summary provides your clients an understanding of what to expect from you and your team.

2. Objectives

The aims and objectives of the marketing campaign or project should be stated in clear terms. To show that you are aware of the client’s demands, align these goals with their company objectives. You should also understand that not clearly stating the objectives could lead to confusion and easily make tracking the progress of the project quite difficult.

3. Intended outcomes

Every effective marketing proposition is built around the idea of “intended outcomes.” These results are more than just objectives; they stand for the transformational changes that your client’s business will experience as a result of your proposed plans and activities. In this important section of the proposal, you should delve into the anticipated future and the advantages of your partnership for the development and success of your brand.

4. Define the target audience

Analyze the target audience of your intended clients to demonstrate your knowledge of this demographic. To show the applicability of your marketing strategy, include details on their demographics, behavior and preferences.

5. Market research

Here, you gather knowledge of consumer behavior, tastes, market trends, and the market environment. These findings are then used to generate marketing strategies and plans. Marketing research provides the data and insights needed to make informed decisions within your  marketing plan .

6. Approach

Describe a well-planned marketing strategy that combines online and offline approaches. Describe the thinking behind each tactic and how they complement one another to produce the intended outcomes.

7. Measurement and KPIs

Outline the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to gauge the marketing campaign’s effectiveness. Display your plan for collecting data, analyzing it and using it to inform decisions.

8. Timeline and proposed budget

Give a thorough breakdown of the marketing campaign’s necessary budget as well as the estimated timetable for its completion. Building client trust through transparency in costs and delivery dates is beneficial.

9. Project team

This provides information on the qualifications and relevant experience of the marketing team or agency. It also highlights their strengths and weaknesses, previous achievements, their position in the company and the part they will play in the execution of the intended project.

10. Case studies and testimonials

Include pertinent references, case studies or illustrations of prior successful projects to highlight your experience and track record.

11. Terms and conditions

Invite the client to take the following steps, such as setting up a meeting or signing the agreement, by concluding the proposal with a clear call to action. Specify any terms, conditions or contractual arrangements related to the partnership.

An effective marketing proposal involves thorough planning and attention to detail. Here are some common mistakes to avoid in order to make sure your proposal stands out and stays clear of potential pitfalls:

Lack of individualization:  Using a generic or templated proposal without adjusting it to the client’s unique needs and objectives can come across as careless and disconnected. Personalize your proposal to show that you are aware of the client’s problems and how your proposed solutions will solve them.

Uncertainty in objectives:  Failure to establish precise, quantifiable objectives may cause uncertainty and a lack of concentration. Make sure your proposal contains clear objectives that the client can comprehend and assess.

Heavy focus on characteristics:  If you place too much attention on the characteristics of your services rather than the advantages and results for the client, your proposal may not be as appealing. Clients are interested in how your methods will address their issues and produce outcomes.

Ignoring the target audience : If you don’t clearly define how your tactics will appeal to the client’s target audience, your proposal’s relevance and impact will suffer.

Insufficient research:  Making recommendations without completing in-depth market research and data analysis can make your proposal seem unreliable. Based on sound research and insights, develop your strategies.

Uncertain time frame : Clients may be unsure of the project’s duration and scope if there isn’t a clear timeframe for the intended activities. The timetable and milestones should be clearly stated.

Neglecting proofreading:  is important since submitting a proposal that contains grammatical, typographical, or formatting issues tarnishes your professionalism and credibility. Always double-check your writing before submitting.

Can I use marketing proposal examples as-is for my own business?

While you can use marketing proposal examples as a reference and source of inspiration, it is essential to customize them to suit your specific business needs, goals, and target audience. A one-size-fits-all approach may not effectively address your unique requirements, so tailoring the proposal will ensure it aligns with your company’s objectives and maximizes its potential for success.

How long should a marketing proposal be?

The complexity of the project and the client’s particular requirements can affect the length of a marketing proposal. However, it’s typically advised to keep the proposal brief and concentrated. Without including any additional attachments or supporting documents, aim for a length of 5–10 pages.

How do I make my marketing proposal stand out?

Consider customizing your marketing proposal to the client’s particular requirements and objectives, and make it abundantly obvious how your marketing methods will alleviate the client’s problems and produce results. Use a  marketing proposal template  with charts, graphs and infographics to add visual appeal to the proposal and to demonstrate the knowledge and experience of your team in the field. Finally, present your proposal in a polished and visually appealing manner. Include case studies or testimonials from prior successful marketing efforts.

How do I format my marketing proposal?

Your marketing proposal should be presented in a polished, well-organized and visually appealing manner. To organize the material, think about utilizing headings and subheadings. Also, make sure to utilize a unified font and color design. Include visual components in the proposal, such as pictures, graphs and graphics to make it more interesting. 

Are marketing plans and marketing proposals the same?

In the context of marketing strategy, a marketing plan and a marketing proposal serve different functions. A marketing plan is a thorough internal strategy document that defines a company’s overall marketing strategy over a long period of time. A marketing proposal, on the other hand, is a client-focused document that gives a detailed plan and strategy for a specific project or campaign in order to secure a client’s business. As a business, you can  create a marketing plan  with strategies that will be covered more in depth in the business proposals that you make.

• Sign up or  log in to Venngage  to register and platform’s features and templates.
• Click on “Create a Design” and select “Proposal” as the design type. 
• Browse through the available proposal templates or use the search bar to find one that suits your needs.
• Replace placeholder text with your own content, such as company information, client details, and project objectives.
• Customize the color scheme, fonts, and images to match your brand’s identity and preferences.
• Enhance your proposal with visual elements such as images, icons, charts, graphs, and illustrations.
• Carefully review your marketing proposal for accuracy, clarity, and completeness.
• Once satisfied, download your proposal as a PDF, image file, or share it directly with your client using Venngage’s sharing options.