Impact of Social Media Marketing on Aldi’s Brand Awareness: A Study of UK-based

Consumers

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Professor (Tutor)

The Name of the School (University)

The City and State where it is located

The Date

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Acknowledgement

To be filled by the student as the project format document mentions using the names and roles

of only organisational or institutional personnel

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 Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction 5
1.1 Overview of Aldi 5
1.1 Research Background 5
1.2 Problem Statement 5
1.3 Research Aim, Objectives and Questions 6
1.4 Significance of the Study 7
1.5 Summary 7
Chapter 2: Literature Review 8
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 Definition of Terms 8
2.2.1 Social Media 8
2.2.2 Social Media Marketing 9
2.2.3 Branding 9
2.2.4 Brand Awareness 10
2.3 The Zones of Social Media 10
2.4 The Role of Social Media in Marketing 11
2.5 Theories of Social Media Marketing (Brand-resonance pyramid and other theories) 12
2.6 Social Media Marketing Strategies 17
2.7 Significance of Social Media for Brand awareness 18
2.8 Summary 19
Chapter 3: Research Methodologies 20
3.1 Introduction 20
3.2 Research Outline 20
3.3 Sampling Method 21
3.4 Data Collection Method 21
3.5 Research Strategy 22
3.6 Data Analysis 23
3.7 Ethical Considerations 24
3.8 Research Timetable 24

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 3.9 Summary 24
Chapter 4: Data Presentation and Analysis 24
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis 24
4.2 Summary 37
Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusions 37
5.1 Discussion and Conclusion 37
5.2 Strengths and Limitations of the Study 39
References 41
Appendices 49
Appendix 1: Research Timetable 49
Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire 49

List of Figures
Figure 1: Brand Resonance Pyramid.............................................................................................13
Figure 2: Lauterborn’s 4Cs model.................................................................................................15
Figure 3: Honeycomb model.........................................................................................................16
Figure 4: Frequent choice of social media platform......................................................................25
Figure 5: Preferable choice of Aldi's social media page................................................................26
Figure 6: Duration of followership................................................................................................27
Figure 7: Brand recall due to social media posts...........................................................................27
Figure 8: Type of content used......................................................................................................28
Figure 9: Key reason for following Aldi on Social Media............................................................29
Figure 10: Provision of feedback or grievances on social media pages of Aldi............................30
Figure 11: Does Aldi take grievances and feedback seriously?....................................................31
Figure 12: Reliability and authenticity of posts.............................................................................32
Figure 13: Creativity in designing posts........................................................................................33
Figure 14: Are videos posted on Social media pages by influencers?..........................................34
Figure 15: Does social media posts influence purchase decisions of consumers?........................35
Figure 16: Frequency of product and service advertisements.......................................................36

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Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Overview of Aldi

Established in 1946 as a private firm, ALDI is a major retailer that was created as a common

brand of two German family-owned discount supermarket chains. There are two headquarters of

the company established in Essen and Mulheim of Germany. Currently, ALDI serves more than

11,000 locations worldwide and is a major player in the product category of grocery items and

household essentials. As of 2019-20, the revenue generated by ALDI accounted for almost 53

billion euros. In 1960, the company was split into two parts, namely, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. In

the UK, Aldi Sud is the main service provider of the two. There is an official UK Facebook page

that is maintained by the brand having 1,823,008 followers as of April 2020.

1.1 Research Background

In the current technologically advanced and digitally connected world, social media is perceived

as one of the most powerful engines of people’s daily lives as a tool utilised on a daily basis.

According to a Statista survey conducted in 2020, the estimated number of people on social

media is 3.08 billion as social media has become a significant platform for searching and sharing

information. As a tool, the utility of social media has transcended from being a platform to

sharing the content of the feelings and private lives of the users, news and events to become a

paramount strategic tool for organisations desiring to generate economic advantages through

greater interaction and innovative communications with the audiences (Rathore and Ilavarasan,

2018; Jung et al. 2018). However, the extent to which the different components of social media

can contribute to the enhancement of business functions and results are varying.

1.2 Problem Statement

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Aldi has a significantly prominent brand image in the global business arena. However, there are

frequent complaints about the poor services of Aldi. The customer feedback system is also not

that effective for Aldi. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the brand image of Aldi. In order to

improve the image of the brand, companies attempt to increase the brand awareness. The

awareness of the brands also impacts the perception and attitudes of the consumers. A lack of

prominent brand awareness can result in less purchase of a product in a representative manner.

The absence of the brand awareness can also make it difficult for a company to gain a

competitive advantage in the industry. An increase in the brand awareness of a company in a

competitive business environment can increase the market share of a person. The reputation and

awareness of the brand can impact the ability of a company to increase its reputation as well as

sales.

1.3 Research Aim, Objectives and Questions

The current research aims to analyse the impact of social media marketing by Aldi on its brand

awareness among UK-based consumers selected from the official social media pages of ALDI

UK. The research objectives include;

● To analyse the different components of social media that contribute to the brand

awareness of Aldi

● To investigate how social media marketing by Aldi impacts its brand awareness among

consumers

● To recommend ways in which Aldi’s brand awareness could be improved among

consumers through social media marketing

The research questions, therefore, are;

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 ● What are the different components of social media that contribute to Aldi’s brand

awareness among consumers?

● How does Aldi’s social media marketing impact its brand awareness among consumers?

● What suggestions may be developed to allow Aldi to increase its brand awareness

through social media marketing?

1.4 Significance of the Study

The current study has aimed at elucidating the impact of the usage of social media marketing on

the brand awareness of Aldi. In the present research the various components of social media have

been analysed. The analysis of these components can be helpful for gathering knowledge about

social media. In addition, the research has also attempted to explore the marketing strategies used

on social media by Aldi and their impact on the brand awareness of the company. The analysis of

various marketing strategies that have been employed by the company for improving brand

awareness. The current study has also attempted to recommend strategies for Aldi for employing

effective marketing strategies. The strategies have been suggested focusing on the aim of

increasing the brand awareness of the company. These strategies can be helpful for the future

studies to explore these marketing strategies further.

1.5 Summary

This chapter provided a brief background to Aldi and social media marketing. The problem

statement was developed along with the research aim, objectives, and questions. The

introduction chapter clarified the significance of the study. The next chapter is the literature

review that aims to discuss the key theories and concepts presented by previous researchers on

social media marketing.

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Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The literature review chapter is aimed at presenting the theoretical underpinnings and conceptual

models presented by previous researchers pertaining to the use of social media in marketing and

the brand awareness of companies.

2.2 Definition of Terms

2.2.1 Social Media

The concept of social media has originated from a combination of two words including social

and media. The social component of the phrase refers to the interaction that takes place among

individuals that collectively form either a community or a group. On the other hand, the term

“media” refers to the process of communicating information and ideas through publications or

channels, as well as, to advertising (Fuchs, 2017). Therefore, it could be stated that social media

refers to platforms for communication and publication that are developed and sustained for the

interpersonal interactions of individuals or users via specific tools or mediums. Social media

platforms are a place where individuals can engage in online social interaction that happens

through highly scalable and accessible techniques. In this context, Sajid (2016) defines social

media as the mobile and online platforms or techniques used by people to share content and

interact. The whole notion of social media can be classified into different segments consisting of

social news sites, social bookmarking sites and social media sites, as well as, social gaming,

commerce, media-sharing sites along with online forums and blogs. Another publication by

Hjorth and Hinton (2019) defined social media as a set of internet-based applications that are

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built on the technological and ideological foundations of Web 2.0 that enable the development,

as well as, exchange of content generated by users.

2.2.2 Social Media Marketing

The notion of social media marketing refers to the utilisation of different social media platforms

to engage and convince prospective clients of the worth of a company along with its offerings.

The term “social media marketing” originated from the combination of two concepts including

social media and marketing. Thus, it could be stated that any form of marketing that takes place

over social media is defined as social media marketing (Tuten and Solomon, 2017).

Nevertheless, social media marketing is not to be confused with a presence on social media.

Rather, as argued by (Felix et al. 2017; Godey et al. 2016). the notion of social media is a

strategic, methodical, and complex process that is oriented toward enhancing the reputation,

influence, and awareness of a brand among the communities of online prospective supporters,

consumers, as well as, viewers.

2.2.3 Branding

Branding is one of the paramount components of business strategy. A brand is defined as both

the tangible and the intangible attributes of an entity designed with the intent to increase the

awareness and identity of the entity (Iglesias et al. 2017; Foroudi, 2019; Wheeler, 2017).

Additionally, branding also allows companies to make their offerings and value-added services

reputable and known throughout their prospective consumer base (Felix et al. 2017). From a

holistic viewpoint, branding can be defined as a long-term strategy that allows companies to

incorporate a diverse and broad range of activities that consist of product innovation, as well as,

marketing.

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2.2.4 Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is the extent of the consumer consciousness for a specific company. Brand

awareness attempts to measure the potential capability of the consumer to recognise a brand

among the other brands (Abdullah, 2017). The brand image of a brand is generally constructed

with the help of the products and services of a particular brand. Brand awareness of a business

can be spread through both the inbound as well as outbound efforts of marketing (Tariq et al.

2017). In a highly competitive industry, brand awareness can be considered as a significant asset

for a company. The extent of brand awareness can be considered as the degree to which

consumers recognise a brand by its name. As opined by (Molinillo et al. 2017; Chinomona and

Maziriri, 2017), the awareness of a brand involves the distinctive qualities of a brand which

helps in distinguishing it.

2.3 The Zones of Social Media

In the current era, social media marketing can be considered as a significantly important tool

marketing. In the process of social media marketing, there are different zones of social media in

which marketing is continued. The most important zones are zone of social community, zone of

social publishing, zone of social entertainment and zone of social commerce. Facebook is in the

zone of social community. Social community aims at building relationships which helps in

increasing the awareness of a brand (Shahid et al. 2017; Ansari et al. 2019; Godey et al. 2016).

Furthermore, in this zone, consumers are able to communicate with the people having the same

interests. Therefore, social networking sites such as Facebook are in this zone. From the

viewpoint of marketing professionals, Facebook helps in providing opportunity for

communicating directly to one or more customers. This further helps in building improved

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relationships. In the following zone, there are social publishing platforms. Twitter is in the zone

of social publishing (Tuten and Solomon, 2017). On these platforms, contents are shared over the

internet. In social publishing sites, contents are shared by businesses as well as consumers.

Microblogging sites play a major role in social publishing zones. Therefore, Twitter is a part of

the social publishing zone. On Twitter, businesses can showcase their products and services

specifically the newly launched products. Another zone of social media marketing can be the

zone of social entertainment. In this zone, there are channels that are associated with gaming and

entertainment. These platforms are mainly used for entertainment. Therefore, Instagram is a part

of this zone. A business needs to take part in some of these platforms to have an increased brand

awareness. Knowledge about these zones and targeting the right audiences is significantly

important for a business and beneficial to the social media image of the company (Vinerean,

2017; Wang and Kim, 2017). All of these channels work individually for a business with respect

to communication, collaboration and building a community. Therefore, for businesses in the

present era, identification of the zones of social marketing can be substantially important.

2.4 The Role of Social Media in Marketing

Marketing is an important part of the overall business strategies of a business organisation. In the

present era, most of the companies utilise social media marketing by using different platforms of

social media. Social media has become an essential part of the marketing practices of the

company. Social media helps in providing identity to the brand as well as the products. Active

use of social media attempts to improve the brand identity of a business. for existing brands, use

of social media helps in rebuilding the image of a company. Social media also helps in creating

relationships which is one of the main aims of marketing strategies of a company (Quy et al.

2019). Use of social media platforms help in communicating with a large number of

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consumers which is not possible by other strategies of marketing. Therefore, marketing with

social media can be considered as most effective. In social media platforms, businesses are able

to showcase their actual brand ideology (Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016). Brands are not able

to put forward the real personality of the brand with their websites. In social media, businesses

can express the brand ideology with the consumers as most of consumers are present on these

platforms. The brands are able to represent humans to the customers. The news of the new

products are not needed to be discussed all the time, the values and beliefs of the brand need to

be published. the platforms of social media can also play a major role in communication and

interaction (Freberg, 2018). The main aim of the marketing strategy of businesses is to increase

the communication with the customers. On social media networks, consumers can ask for

justifications and they can also get the answers of the query. Businesses operate in a competitive

world which induces them to employ new marketing strategies for better performance. A

business using social media can be benefitted by gaining a competitive edge in the market. On

the platforms of social media, there are usage of different keywords and hashtags. These methods

can help businesses to find the potential customers interested in the products and services of the

company (Osei-Frimpong and McLean, 2018; Chen and Lin, 2019; Olbrich et al. 2019). After

the identification of the potential customers, businesses can direct them to the account where

there is more information about the brand. Therefore, social media platforms can play a

significant role in shaping the marketing strategies of a business more effectively for better

prospects.

2.5 Theories of Social Media Marketing (Brand-resonance pyramid and other theories)

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In the context of social media usage and brand awareness of a company, there are a few theories

that can play a major role in expressing their underlying roles for a business. The important

theories can be,

Brand-resonance Pyramid

The pyramid of brand resonance suggests that brand building can be an ascending and sequential

series in which a few steps are followed from bottom to top. The steps of brand resonance

represents the sequential steps of building brand resonance from the lowest part of the pyramid

to the highest part. Brand salience refers to the ability of the model for being evoked under

different purchase and consumption situations (Moura et al. 2019). Brand performance refers to

the way of meeting the functional needs of a customer by the products and services. The stage of

brand imagery refers to the extrinsic properties of the goods or services of a company.

Figure 1: Brand Resonance Pyramid

(Source: Influenced by Khanna et al. 2019)
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In this stage, the social needs of the customers are also taken into consideration as how the

brands aims to meet the social needs with products. At the stage of brand judgements, the

emphasis is on the personal opinion and assessment of the customer. In the following step, there

are the brand feelings. In this stage, the reactions and emotional responses of a customer is taken

in account based on the products and services of the brand. The following stage is brand

resonance (Khanna et al. 2019). In this stage, the association of the customers with the brand is

explored. In this context the feeling of the customers for being in touch with the brand is

significantly important. Brand resonance can be considered as the characteristics of a brand

which attempts to depict the strong correlation between the brand and the consumers. As per

Sinha (2017), brands having more resonance suggests that the customers are loyal to the brand.

Therefore, in a competitive environment businesses can face less competition from other

companies in the industry. Therefore, the brand is also less vulnerable to the marketing actions

undertaken by competitive companies. To increase the resonance of the brand, businesses need

to ensure that customers experiences are good and the correct brand knowledge is created.

Lauterborn’s 4Cs model for digital marketing

The model of 4Cs for digital communication by Lauterborn plays a major role in marketing

owing to the rising demand for digital marketing. In this model, there is a placement of four

components for an effective marketing mix. The components are such as convenience to buy,

cost to satisfy, communication and customer demands and needs. The consumer wants and

needs, the first C of the model suggests that companies need to focus on the actual needs and

demands of the consumers (Kubicka, 2016).Manufacturing a lot of products without knowing the

actual needs of customers can be ineffective. The method of feedback is significantly impactful

in this process of The following C in the model is Cost to satisfy. This focuses on the basis of

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prices that are irrelevant as there are other factors that are needed to be considered(Ikechi et al.

2017). In the case of commodity goods, prices are often forced down.

Figure 2: Lauterborn’s 4Cs model

(Source: Influenced by Kubicka, 2016)

The following component of the model is Convenience to buy which aims at discussing the ease

of buying. In the current era, buying can be done all the time. Therefore, social media can play a

major role in this as the posts of social media of a company can significantly impact the purchase

decisions of the company. The redirecting link to the actual website of a company from social

media can add convenience in the process of purchasing (Jackson and Ahuja, 2016). The last C

in the model is Communication. As per the model, promotion can be considered as a

manipulative and one way system which compels the companies to communicate with

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customers. However, ideally communication needs to be in the form of a both way conversation.

Using social media helps a brand to carry out this two way communication more effectively.

Honeycomb Model

The Honeycomb model is considered to be a significantly important model for social media

marketing as the model aims at discussing the ecology of social media effectively. In this

ecology, the marketers, users as well as the partners operate. The following are the seven blocks

of the honeycomb which aims at discussing the key aspects of social media usage for businesses.

Sharing attempts to focus on the ways how the contents are shared on the platforms of social

media. Marketers of a company need to ensure that sharing information with the consumers can

help in effective communication with the brands (Prodanova and Van Looy, 2017). Therefore

businesses engage influencers to share information on their social media pages.

Figure 3: Honeycomb model

(Source: Influenced by Laing and Khattab, 2016)

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Presence attempts to discuss the extent of a business to be present on social media. The relation

of a business’s physical presence and virtual presence is also important in this context.

Therefore, companies attempt to be present in all kinds of social networks such as Instagram,

Facebook and Twitter. Relationships attempt to focus on the relationship of one another and the

manifestation of the relation based on using social media (Laing and Khattab, 2016). Some users

generally are on the page of a business to get free content. On the other hand, others can make

requests for customer service or financial transactions. Identity attempts to explore the details

that customers reveal on social media. The identity can be crucial in order to target particular

audiences of a business. Therefore, businesses can be helped by the identification of the

consumers. Conversations aim at discussing the communication via social media. The

conversations can be in the form of comments and messages. Businesses attempt to post more

images and videos to attract the customers and increase communication among the customers

(Finkbeiner, 2017). Reputation of a company can be determined with the help of special features

of social media such as follower count, blue ticks and likes. In this case, the legitimate indicators

need to be taken into consideration. Many businesses experience increased traffic of customers

on the social media pages of the company for posting authentic content (CIOCHINĂ, 2016).

Groups attempt to explore the possibility of forming a group as well as sub-communities on

social media. These groups can play a major role in influencing the consumers to purchase. The

purchase decisions of the consumers are impacted by the groups.

2.6 Social Media Marketing Strategies

In the present era, social media marketing is considered to be the future of the businesses. The

businesses operating in the digital era, need to consider the effective strategies for marketing. A

significantly important strategy undertaken by business companies is the method of providing

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feedback (Jensen and Chappin, 2017). Businesses also attempt to give options for complaining

against the company along with the feedback. In order to have effective and fresh ideas about the

new marketing strategies, feedback can play a major role (Macarthy, 2018; Assimakopoulos et

al. 2017). The complaints from customers also help the businesses to know about the

discrepancies in their systems. This also helps brads to have a good reputation in the industry.

Another strategy of brands is considered as employing influencers for promoting the brands.

Social media influencers can play a major role in the marketing strategy of a company (Dhara

and Chakraborty, 2017). Influencers usually have a significant amount of followers on social

media. Therefore, businesses can experience an influx of new customers by employing

influencers to advertise their products. Influencers sharing their video links can also be helpful.

Business companies also employ the strategy of posting creative posts on social media to attract

new customers. The creative posts can include behind the scene photos, creating polls for the

audience as well as partnering with other brands. These can work as effective marketing

strategies for the company as they largely impact the purchasing decisions of the consumers. One

of the most conventional ways of marketing on social media can be frequent advertisements of

products and services (Key and Czaplewski, 2017; Gentile et al. 2017; Vezich et al. 2017).

Businesses are benefited by these advertisements as consumers get the knowledge about new

products and services effectively. Businesses also employ the strategy of posting their contents

repetitively on social media. The consumers therefore, are able to recognise the brand with the

help of their images of the products eventually. This helps in creating a brand awareness for the

brands.

2.7 Significance of Social Media for Brand awareness

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Social media can be regarded as the key factor for the creation and improvement of brand

awareness for a business. The reason behind this success is that social media is an effective

platform for brands for maintaining customer relationships along with the opportunity of getting

new leads. Bilgin (2018) stated that the businesses operating in a competitive market can be

significantly benefited by the use of social media. More customers are interested in buying the

products from a company owing to the good image of the brand on social media (Ananda et al.

2016; Vinerean, 2017). Therefore, businesses undertake several steps for improving the

performance of the company with the help of brand awareness. The promotional contents of the

brands on social media attracts the most number of customers. Therefore, buyers attempt to

purchase more from those brands with more promotional content. A creative post on social

media by a company can also help them to achieve more customer engagement (Razak, 2019).

The creative posts of the company are positively perceived by the consumers. Therefore, the

brand awareness increases significantly. Many businesses also attempt to start a process of

receiving feedback to the customers. The process of providing feedback can help increase the

communication between the business and consumers. The process of feedback also makes

consumers believe that their opinions and suggestions are being valued. In addition, businesses

also often attempt to use the fame of influencers to advertise about the brand. The advertisement

of the brands by the influencers can help them reach the customers that have been targeted.

Additional customers can also be achieved by advertising with the help of social media.

Therefore, businesses can achieve more customers than the targeted level (Tritama & Tarigan,

2016). The increase in the number of customers leads to better brand awareness. Most of the

marketing managers state that their most important goal is to improve the brand awareness of the

company. Engagement with social media increases the customer engagement significantly. In

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addition, contents of the company are more effectively promoted with the help of the marketing

in social media. Lou and Yuan, (2019) argued that an important benefit of social media is the

social sharing in which customers share content regularly and it improves awareness of the

brands. Most popular platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook help businesses to

improve brand awareness.

2.8 Summary

This chapter provided an overview of the past literature presented by previous scholars and

researchers. The next chapter is the research methodologies. The research methodology chapter

aims to define the key methods and measures used in the project and provide a rationale on why

these specific tools were used.

Chapter 3: Research Methodologies

3.1 Introduction

This chapter aims to develop a framework consisting of key tools and techniques that are used in

the research to address the objectives. Additionally, the choice of key tools and techniques has

been justified.

3.2 Research Outline

The research outline establishes the primordial structure of a research project. For this specific

study, the fundamental outline is inclusive of the positivism philosophy, the descriptive design

and the deductive approach of research. Positivism adheres to the perception that only factual

information gathered through measurement and observation is reliable (Ryan, 2018). The scope

of the current study entails analysing the impact of real-life social media marketing practices of

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Aldi on its business and therefore, the range of research is confined to the collection of factual

data and interpretation of the information objectively. The current study describes the attributes

of social media marketing and how they influence Aldi’s business. The descriptive research

design is suitable as it assists in the identification of a phenomenon under study (Atmowardoyo,

2018). The current study employs a primary quantitative strategy to collect measurable data from

human participants indicating how different attributes of social media influenced Aldi’s business.

As argued by Woiceshyn and Daellenbach (2018), the deductive approach is useful in research

studies that aim to confirm the authenticity and reliability of a theory or a perception as it

emphasizes collecting facts based on perspectives in a waterfall format that operates from a

general to specific supportive deductions.

3.3 Sampling Method

This study employs a probability sampling method in the form of simple random sampling. This

type of sampling entails a whole population in the sampling frame and every member of the

population has equal opportunities of being chosen (Etikan and Bala, 2017). The population for

the survey was 392 consumers that are followers of the official ALDI pages on Twitter,

Facebook and Instagram. An initial pilot survey was carried out to collect the demographic

attributes of the population. The questions that were used for the pilot survey included “How

long have you been following Aldi on social media” and “Which nation are you a citizen at”.

The first question was asked to ensure that no respondents selected as the sample for the study

were followers at the official social media pages of ALDI UK for less than 1 year. The results

further indicated that among the 392 consumers, only 231 were citizens in the UK due to which,

161 consumers were removed and the final sample size was considered to be 231. However, due

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to the unavailability of 6 respondents, while conducting the final survey, the researcher carried

on with only 225 respondents.

3.4 Data Collection Method

From the perspective of research studies, data can be of two types including primary and

secondary. Primary data refers to information that is gained through first-hand or original

research (Moser and Korstjens, 2018). For instance, focus group discussions, interview

responses, and surveys are all examples of primary data sources. On the contrary, secondary data

refers to information that has been collected by a secondary source. In this context, secondary

sources can range from journal publications, posts published on government websites, newspaper

articles and online databases among others.

There are two methods of data collecting including quantitative and qualitative methods.

Quantitative data refers to information that is numeric and can be measured using simple to

complex mathematical calculations (Paradis et al. 2016). On the contrary, as defined by Ghauri

et al. (2020) qualitative data refers to information that is extracted from the perceptions or

personal experiences of previous researchers, respondents, journal publications and newspaper

articles among others.

This study employs the primary quantitative method of data collection. As the current study

looks into the different characteristics of social media marketing and how these characteristics

influence the business of Aldi, the primary quantitative method of data collection is suitable

since it allows the researcher to gain insightful information from a large sample size in a

stipulated time. Additionally, the numeric attributes of the collected data mitigate the chances of

ambiguity or bias and enhance the authenticity, as well as, reliability of the collected data.

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Furthermore, this method of data collection is also cost and time-efficient as the same sample can

be provided to a large number of populations to gain their perspectives on the key issues,

problems, variables, and characteristics. In addition to that, the current issue under investigation

requires current and up-to-date data considering that the scope of the study lays in gaining a

comprehension of the current practices associated with social media marketing in Aldi and how

these practices have influenced their business in the UK.

3.5 Research Strategy

A research strategy refers to the technique of collecting data for the research process (Bell et al.

2018). For the current research, a survey questionnaire strategy has been employed. A survey

questionnaire is a highly efficient primary quantitative data collection technique that allows the

users to gather a substantial amount of data from a massive population under a stipulated time

frame (Quinlan et al. 2019). For the current research, the survey questionnaire contained 13

questions three of which were demographic while the rest of the 10 questions were created to

collect responses from the participants regarding the impact of social media marketing strategies

of Aldi on the awareness of the brand. A majority of the questions were designed using a Likert-

scale technique. The questions were close-ended to mitigate the chances of misinterpretations at

the stage of data analysis. The survey took place on Survey-Monkey which is an online platform

for surveys while the link to the survey questionnaire was provided on the official Facebook,

Twitter and Instagram page of ALDI UK.

3.6 Data Analysis

Data analysis refers to the systematic process of applying logical techniques to illsutrate,

describe, recapt, condense, as well as, evaluate data collected in a research (Gray, 2019). To

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ensure the integrity of the presented data, researchers must engage in appropriate and accurate

analysis of the research outcomes. For the current research, the data has been presented in the

form of tables that records the options for the questions and the number of respondents opting for

each option (Check Appendix 2). The data has been analysed numerically through converting the

gathered data into response percentages based on their frequency. The data has then been

presented descriptively and compared and contrasted with the concepts and theories discussed in

the literature review section.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

As this is a quantitative study involving human participants, it was imperative for me to ensure

that some ethical considerations were developed and followed before beginning the data

collection process to mitigate the risk of harm to participants (Yip et al. 2016; Strange, 2016). In

this sense, I included a form at the beginning of the survey which informed all respondents of the

purpose of this research project. I ensured that the collected data is used for only academic

purposes for addressing the current research objectives. I further informed all respondents of

their freedom to leave at any stage of the survey to ensure that all information provided by the

respondents was voluntary. While designing the survey questionnaire, I ensured that none of the

questions was designed in a way that could potentially hurt the ethnic or religious views of the

respondents. I also ensured that no questions were designed in a way that could potentially

collect personally identifiable information of the respondents. Furthermore, I encrypted the data

in a USB-drive and ensured that the USB-drive was accessible only to me.

3.8 Research Timetable

Please refer to Appendix (N)

24
3.9 Summary

This chapter described and justified the tools and techniques used in the study. The next chapter

is data presentation and analysis that aims to analyse the collected data and present the key

findings of the analyses.

Chapter 4: Data Presentation and Analysis

4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis

Figure 4: Frequent choice of social media platform

The most frequent choice of social media, as can be seen from the graph, was Facebook with

almost 40% of respondents choosing this option. Instagram was the second immediate winner

with almost 29% respondents choosing the answer. Facebook is gaining increased attention from

commercial organisations and marketers due to being considered the key platform for the

development of a social community. Facebook enables users to interact with their favourite

brands online through watching the posts made by their favourite brands, interact and

25
communicate with them regarding queries and feedback related to service and products and

enhances their engagement with the company.

Figure 5: Preferable choice of Aldi's social media page

Question two revealed that the official Facebook page of Aldi UK had the most frequent choice

among the respondents whereas, Twitter was the least favourite choice. Employing the theory of

social media zones, it could be stated that the zones of social community, one of which is

Facebook, allows different individuals to enhance their relationship and interaction. In the social

community zones of social media platforms, it is possible for consumers to interact and

communicate with people that are like-minded and have similar interests. On the other hand, it

creates direct engagement between two or more parties. Instagram, on the other hand, falls into

the category of social entertainment zone and allows companies to upload highly interactive

picture regarding products, services and initiatives. The use of eye-appealing images and short

keywords help gain consumer attention and assists in improving the identity, as well as,

awareness of the brands.

26
 Figure 6: Duration of followership
The third question revealed that a majority of respondents were active members on Aldi’s social

media pages for 1-2 years while, over the long-term of more than 3 years, the percentage of

respondents was only 17%.

Figure 7: Brand recall due to social media posts

Question 4 revealed that approximately 80% of the respondents were able to recall the brand’s

products due to the pictures and videos of the products posted on the different official pages of

27
Aldi. Therefore, it can be stated that Aldi has been able to increase the brand identity in the UK

with the help of effective marketing strategy. Aldi has employed the strategy of posting

promotional content on social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Facebook. As per the

views of Quy et al. (2019), social media contents have a significant impact on the brand identity

of a company. The promotional contents of the company on social media of Aldi has helped in

increasing the brand identity. Most of the respondents have stated that they have been able to

recall the products of Aldi with the help of promotional content. The recognition of the brand of

Aldi has also been possible due to the expression of the brand ideology effectively. The

promotional contents posted on various pages of social media has helped Aldi to represent their

ideology effectively. Aldi is popular for providing qualified products at less price. The

promotional contents have been able to reflect the ideology of Aldi to provide a service of high

quality at low price. As per Freberg (2018), the impact of a brand’s ideology can be persistent on

a consumer. Therefore, the high level of brand recognition has been contributed by efficient

marketing strategies of Aldi.

Figure 8: Type of content used

28
Aldi engages most frequently in sharing interactive image content with captions as indicated by

almost 65% of the respondents and therefore, image sharing can be considered one of the most

frequent social media marketing strategies by Aldi.

Figure 9: Key reason for following Aldi on Social Media

Among the surveyed respondents, the key reason as to why they follow Aldi on different social

media pages was to obtain discount and promotion codes which accounted for almost 29% of the

respondents. The least selected reason, accounting for almost 15%, was interacting with othe

consumers.

29
 Figure 10: Provision of feedback or grievances on social media pages of Aldi
As revealed from the responses obtained from question 7, as much as 81% of the respondents

have provided feedback or grievances on the social media pages of Aldi by posting or interacting

with the social media representatives. Therefore, the social media pages of a brand can also serve

as a customer service tool. Businesses use social media for feedback as well as complaints from

the consumers. The results of the survey stated that most of the consumers of Aldi have provided

feedback and also posted complaints about the products. Jensen and Chappin (2017) argued that

businesses often employ the strategy of getting customer feedback as a marketing strategy.

Therefore, it can be stated that, for Aldi, this strategy has been impactful. This strategy helps

customers to convey their feelings directly to the brand. Furthermore, the customers of Aldi also

feel that the brand values customers. In addition, as per Razak (2019), the process of providing

feedback to the company can increase the communication between the brand and their

customers. As majority of the respondents stated that they have provided feedback which also

suggests that Aldi generally experiences good communication with the customers. Increased

communication suggests that most of the customers have access to the company for expressing

their feedback as well as grievances. Communication is a significantly important aspect in

increasing the brand awareness of a company. Therefore, owing to the effective communication
30
between Aldi and its customers with the system of providing feedback, the company has been

able to have a significantly impressive brand awareness.

Figure 11: Does Aldi take grievances and feedback seriously?

According to a majority of the respondents, accounting for almost 70% of the sample size, Aldi

takes the grievances and feedback posted by consumers very seriously. Only about 12% of the

respondents disagreed strongly while almost 16% disagreed. According to the views of Jensen

and Chapping (2017) feedback plays a major role in the context of developing fresh marketing

strategies as it allows companies to identify areas that may need improvement and issues that are

faced by the customers and need to be fixed. The feedback and complaints gathered from

consumers assist organisations in terms of being aware of the discrepancies in their system.

Social media, as a technical tool that allows fast and rapid communication and interaction among

two or more parties, is used by Aldi as one of the key methods for gathering and obtaining

customer opinions and feedback. The fact that a majority of the population agreed that Aldi takes

grievances and feedback seriously indicates that the company has achieved a good reputation

among a majority of the followers. As opined by Kubicka (2016), it is imperative for modern

companies to emphasise the actual and realistic needs and demands of the consumers which, in

31
the context of digital marketing, enhances a company’s reputation as an entity that is customer-

centric and thereby, assists the companies in terms of enhancing their brand awareness.

Figure 12: Reliability and authenticity of posts

A high number of respondents, accounting for almost 72% of the respondents suggested that the

posts by Aldi on its social media pages are authentic and reliable. On the other hand, only about

26% of the respondents suggested that the posts could not be relied on and do not seem

authentic. Following the brand resonance pyramid theory, it could be stated that this falls under

the category of brand judgements in which, the focus is laid upon the personal assessment, as

well as, judgements of the customers. A majority of the respondents agreed that Aldi’s posts on

its official social media pages were reliable and authentic. Therefore, in the stage of brand

judgements, the reliability and authenticity of the posts facilitate the development of a positive

mindset towards the company among the consumer which increases the brand feelings or

positive emotional responses and reactions towards the posts by the brand. The positive feelings

and reactions associated with the brand allow the consumers in terms of resonating with the

32
brand which indicates that Aldi has been able to create a strong correlation between the brand

and its followers on the social media pages.

Figure 13: Creativity in designing posts

Almost 52% of the respondents suggested that Aldi is, to a fair extent, creative in designing the

posts that are uploaded on its social media pages. On the other hand, about 25% of the

respondents considered the posts to be moderately creative and another about 25% of the

respondents considered the creativity of Aldi at the lower end. As per the honeycomb model of

social marketing, the notion of sharing emphasises the manners in which different types of

content are shared on the different social media platforms that are used by companies. In this

context, it is imperative for brands and marketers to share information in a way that can

effectively allow the brand in terms of creating positive interaction with the consumers and

obtain positive responses. Since a high number of respondents felt that the contents posted by

Aldi were creative, it could be stated that the posts by Aldi allowed them to connect with their

followers on the social media pages in a emotional level. The development of a positive attitude

33
towards the approaches displayed by a brand to engage consumers more indicates that Aldi has

been able to establish a strong relationship with the followers on social media.

Figure 14: Are videos posted on Social media pages by influencers?

According to almost 68% of the respondents, Aldi allows influencers to post the links to videos

made by them to promote the services and products of Aldi whereas, about 12% of the

respondents never observed such posts on the social media pages of Aldi. Another 20% of the

respondents stated that although they have never seen influencer videos on Aldi’s social media

pages, they have watched the same in other social media platforms. From the social media

marketing strategic perspective, social media influencers play a huge role in the development or

enhancement of the brand awareness of a company. According to Dhara and Chakraborty (2017)

influencers refer to social influencers that have a considerable amount of people following them

on different social media platforms. Partnering and allying with influencers allow a brand to

reach a comparably bigger target population and also facilitates the establishment of brand

presence.

34
 Figure 15: Does social media posts influence purchase decisions of consumers?
According to almost 74% of the surveyed consumers, their purchase decisions are highly to

moderately influenced by the posts made by Aldi on its official social media pages. On the other

hand, about 24% of the respondents disagreed which suggested that the purchase decisions of

these consumers are not influenced by Aldi’s social media posts. Therefore, it can be stated that

the social media posts of Aldi have a substantial impact on the purchasing decisions of the

customers of Aldi. Key and Czaplewski (2017) stated that posting promotional content on a

regular basis on the platforms of social media. Therefore, this strategy has also positively

impacted the purchasing decisions of the consumers. It can be also stated that the decision of

purchasing by the consumers also ensures that the brand awareness of Aldi has increased

significantly. A customer repeats buying products from a company if the brand awareness of the

company is significantly high. Gentile et al. (2017) also stated that advertisements as well as

other promotional contents on the social media pages of a business helps consumers to know

about the company in a better way. The knowledge and reputation of the company plays a major

role in the decision to purchase a product from the company. Therefore, it can be stated that the

35
implementation of the strategy posting contents on the social media pages have been impactful.

Aldi has been able to increase its sales as consumers have been influenced to buy more products

from Aldi. Therefore, the brand awareness of Aldi has been increased with the help of posting

contents on platforms of social media.

Figure 16: Frequency of product and service advertisements

According to almost 65% of the respondents, Aldi frequently advertises its products and services

on its social media pages whereas, only a small number of people accounting for almost 5% of

the sample size indicated that Aldi does not post product and service advertisements on its social

media pages. As opined by Lou and Yuan (2019), it is imperative for companies that include

social media into their marketing strategies to share content regularly to ensure that the use of the

social media pages are able in terms of improving brand awareness effectively. Regular posts

and frequently shared content allows Aldi to connect with the consumers more often and develop

frequent interaction. Consequently, the engagement of the consumers with the company also

increases which indicates that prospective consumers, viewers and followers may be more

interested in accessing information pertaining to the offerings of the company.

36
4.2 Summary

This chapter listed the key findings extracted from the performed data analyzes. The next chapter

is the discussion and conclusions that aims to establish a link between the findings of this study

and the concepts discussed in the literature review and conclude the research.

Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusions

5.1 Discussion and Conclusion

Aldi uses two of the most frequently used and popular social media platforms including

Facebook and Instagram. Although the findings show that Twitter is not preferred by a majority

of the social media users, the presence of the brand on the two popularly used social media

platforms indicates that the brand has established its presence on appropriate places. The

popularity of the first two social media profiles is also reflected from the findings that almost

84% of the surveyed candidates preferred Facebook and Instagram over Twitter. Aldi has been

able to form a community of like-minded people that have similar interests over these social

media platforms and have been able to engage the followers with entertainment and community-

oriented interaction. The notion of brand awareness indicates that prospective consumers are

aware of the brand to an extent where they are able to differentiate the offerings of the brand

from that of the competitors through the observation of the characteristics of the brand which

include logos, names and several other components. The use of social media posts have allowed

Aldi to influence the followers to recall the brand’s products due to the frequently posted

pictures of products and services contributing to the enhancement of the brand’s identity. Aldi

uses variable types of contents including videos, images and textual content to connect with

consumers. One of the key components that consumers look for when searching for a product or

37
service is the availability of information pertaining to those products or services and the

accessibility to information or how easy the information pertaining to the offerings are

accessible. A company that can be easily accessible by prospective consumers is likely to

generate brand awareness among consumers which is reflected from the findings indicating the

accessibility to information is one of the key reasons for followers following Aldi on its social

media pages. On the other hand, the presence of a brand on social media platforms allow them to

easily and rapidly interact with the consumers. This has allowed Aldi to obtain the feedback and

complaints of the customers quickly and make relevant adjustments. Being able to address

consumer concerns indicates that a company values its customers and consequently, prospective

and actual consumers develop a positive emotional mindset and attitude towards the company

contributing to increased brand loyalty and awareness. Similarly, the authenticity and reliability

of the information shared by a brand on social media assists the brand in terms of generating

positive responses and feedback from their followers, target and actual consumers.

Consequently, Aldi has been able to increase its brand loyalty and spread awareness of the

company’s reliability and authenticity through word-of-mouth marketing by the consumers.

Aldi’s brand awareness is also influenced by influencers on social media that have a large

viewer/follower base. Sharing videos posted by influencers allow the consumers in terms of

comprehending the brand’s effectiveness from the feedback and review of socially popular idols

they follow and thereby, the brand identity of Aldi enhances and spreads. The findings also

revealed that Aldi engages in frequent content sharing over the social media pages of the brand

creating consistent and frequent interaction with the consumers which leads to the enhancement

of brand resonance among the consumers. The frequent interaction, sharing reliable and

authentic information, spreading brand awareness through influencers, valuing the consumer

38
opinions and feelings are some of the key characteristics of Aldi that are represented from its

social media marketing strategies that have contributed significantly to the enhancement of the

awareness of the brand among actual and prospective consumers. As a concluding thought, it

could be stated that ALDI, through the use of social media marketing strategies, has been able to

successfully shape its brand awareness and resonance among like-minded followers and

prospective consumers.

5.2 Strengths and Limitations of the Study

Brand awareness is a notion that can be best evaluated from the assessment of the opinions and

perspectives of consumers towards a brand. The current study has used the followers of Aldi UK

on three of its official social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The survey

questions were aimed to represent the perspectives and opinions of Aldi’s followers towards the

brand and to identify the extent to which they were able to resonate with the brand. The sample

population, therefore, is justified and appropriate for the research. On the other hand, the sample

size for the survey was 225 which represents a significantly large population which consolidates

the reliability and authenticity of the findings of the study. However, this study also has some

limitations. Due to time constraints, it was not possible to consider a much larger sample size for

the study which would have been more useful in terms of generalising the outcomes to represent

the entirety of the UK-based consumers of Aldi. Furthermore, the current study lacks primary

qualitative data from experienced and knowledgeable personnel which might have been more

useful in terms of explaining the outcomes of the data analysis. Therefore, the researcher would

advice future researchers to use a mixed-research methodology to collect both consumer

responses and the perspectives of knowledgeable personnel that have sufficient idea of the notion

of social marketing such as those who are in the marketing profession.

39
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Appendices

Appendix 1: Research Timetable

Main Week 1 Week 2 Week 4 Week 7 Week Week 10 Week 12

activities and – Week – Week 8– – Week
stages 3 6 Week 11
9
Selection of 
the topic
Collection of 
data
Planning the  
proper layout
Reviewing 
literature
Development 
of research
plan
Selecting   
research
technique
Gathering  
Primary data
Data analysis  
Interpretation 
of findings
Conclusion 
preparation
Project rough 
overdraft
Final 
submission
Appendix 2: Survey Questionnaire

The total number of respondents for each question was 225

Q1: Which social media platform do you use most among the following:

Options Responses

48
 Facebook 88

Instagram 65

Twitter 12

Reddit 13

LinkedIn 9

YouTube 38

Q2: Which of the social media pages of Aldi you follow mainly:

Options Responses

Facebook 108

Instagram 79

Twitter 38

Q3: For how long have you been following Aldi’s social media page?

Options Responses

1-2 years 122

2-3 years 66

More than 3 years 37

Q4: To what extent would you agree that the pictures of the products of Aldi posted on social

media increase the chances for you to recall the brand when you see the images of its product at

other places?

49
 Options Responses

Strongly Agree 68

Agree 112

Neutral 5

Disagree 23

Strongly Disagree 17

Q5:What kinds of content do you see most frequently on the social media pages of Aldi?

Options Responses

Images 147

Videos 52

Textual Content 26

Q6: What is the key reason for you following Aldi’s social media pages?

Options Responses

Accessibility to information 56

Interactive content 48

Getting promotions and discount codes 88

Interacting with other consumers 33

Q7: Have you ever provided feedback to the company or complained about its practices on the

social media pages?

50
 Options Responses

Yes 183

No 42

Q8: To what extent would you agree that the grievances and feedback posted by consumers on

the social media pages of Aldi are taken seriously?

Options Responses

Strongly Agree 58

Agree 99

Neutral 4

Disagree 37

Strongly Disagree 27

Q9: To what extent would you agree that you find the social media posts of Aldi reliable and

authentic?

Options Responses

Strongly Agree 49

Agree 113

Neutral 5

Disagree 36

Strongly Disagree 22

Q10: On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate Aldi’s creativity in designing the posts?

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 Options Responses

1 21

2 35

3 56

4 78

5 35

Q11: Do you observe influencers uploading their video links to the social media pages of Aldi?

Options Responses

Yes 154

No 26

No, but I watch such videos at other platforms 45

Q12: To what extent would you agree that Aldi’s social media posts influence your purchase

decisions?

Options Responses

Strongly Agree 69

Agree 97

Neutral 6

Disagree 35

Strongly Disagree 18

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Q13: How frequently do you see product and service advertisements on Aldi’s social media

pages on a scale of 1 to 5?

Options Responses

1 12

2 29

3 38

4 96

5 50

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