Sony's Use of Corporate Blogging As A Marketing Tool

1 Introduction

1.1 Background to the research

Every aspect of life continues to grow and evolve with each passing year,

including technology. Betamax tapes have turned into DVDs, floppy disks into

flash drives, typewriters into laptops, beepers into cellphones… and so forth.

Humanity’s insatiable desire to seek out more and more ways to make life

much more pleasant and enjoyable has been the beacon of these

advancements. As such, electronic companies continuously try to produce

items that would address that desire. It is a known fact that nowadays it has

become somewhat of a standard for approximately all businesses— big or

small— have websites, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts or blogs.

Companies have turned to these Internet tools as a means to market and

advertise more efficiently. Corporate blogs are one of these tools as they can

be a very effective mode of business-to-consumer communication. “Free from

length or content restrictions, blogs can feature a wealth of information and

still include images, videos and links for added value. They also present an

opportunity to have a unique voice instead of sounding generic, standard or

too brief” (Pearson, 2013). This research aims to examine the relationship

between Sony’s usage of corporate blogging and the purchasing decisions of

its consumers.

1.2 Research Question

The research problem is that not enough research has been conducted about

the relationship between Sony’s utilization of corporate blogging and the

purchasing decisions of its customers.

This problem was solved by analyzing the respondent’s answers to the

questionnaires about the connection that Sony’s corporate blog has with their

decision to buy products from the company.

Research question - The relationship between Sony’s use of corporate

blogging and their customers’ buying decisions.

1.3 Research aims and objectives

The purpose of this research is to determine the relationship that Sony’s use

of corporate blogging has with their customers’ decision to buy from them.

The aims of this investigation is:

To determine and draw conclusions from results on whether there is a

relationship between Sony’s corporate blogging usage on their

customer’s decision to purchase.

1.4 Justification for the research

It goes without saying that triumph in an ever-changing industry is very fragile

since it is the consumers that determine a company’s success. Through the

years, the internet has spawned various effective ways that businesses may

utilize in order to aid them in marketing their products to their consumers and

corporate blogs are one of the most efficient of these technological

advancements. Not enough research has been conducted to identify the

impact that these corporate blogs have on the purchasing decisions of

consumers.

1.5 Outline of Research Methodology

A positivist approach was adopted through the use of quantitative data

collection method. Positivism was chosen for the study as this philosophy’s

emphasis is on quantifiable observations that lend themselves to statistical

analysis. (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2010) In addition, the research results

can be acquired from the study’s sample and applied to the larger population.

1.6 Outline of Chapters

This dissertation is structured as follows:

Chapter 2 – Reviews relevant literature of corporate blogging and defines the

existing information on which the research was based.

Chapter 3 – Contains the research philosophy, approach and methods used

for the study.

Chapter 4 – Stipulates the particulars regarding the research method utilized

for data collection, the procedure of data analysis, and the description of the

sample and the presentation of the findings of the study.

Chapter 5 – Includes the evaluation of the adopted methodology, conclusions

about the research objectives and research question, opportunities for further

research, recommendations and the limitations of the study.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Internet Marketing – refer to marketing efforts done on the internet.

Social Media - Web sites and other online means of communication that are

used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and

professional contacts (dictionary.com)

Blog (a shortened term for “weblog”) - a type of website that can be

continually updated with new content or posts (affilorama, 2013).

Corporate Blogs – weblogs of organizations that are managed by content

writers who are industry experts or by the company executives.

1.8 Summary

This chapter has introduced the research problem, question and justification,

the definition of terms, as well as an outline of the methodology and chapters.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Ever since its conception, the internet has made such an impact on the world

and how everything in it works. Marketing is no exception. “Internet Marketing

is a form of targeted marketing, to assist websites increase their web

presence and to promote their product or services through the Internet”

(allianzclick.com). In this day and age, almost everyone, from students to

CEOs, have access to the Internet. They use it for a variety of reasons but

most importantly, they also use it to seek products and services. The World

Wide Web can expand a company’s reach in phenomenal proportions,

therefore expanding its target market and increasing the number of potential

consumers. In addition, when people need information about anything,

nowadays most go straight to the internet for answers. One of the main

results of the 2012 Digital Influence Index conducted by Fleishman-Hillard

International Communications and Harris Interactive was “The Internet trumps

all other sources, including advice from friends and family, the ability to reach

consumers with a consistent message across the variety of channels

available – such as social channels – is key to thriving in the ever-changing

and competitive landscape” (fleishmanhillard.com). The study was conducted

with a sample size of 4,617 internet users from several countries, namely;

Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United

States— countries that embody over half of the world’s internet population

and over 60 percent of gross domestic product of the world.

A Nielsen Global Survey (Figure 1) conducted a study with more than 29,000

respondents from Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East/Africa showed

that the Internets is indeed an strong influence on consumers who are

interested in buying new products in categories such as electronics (81%),

appliances (77%), books (70%), music (69%), new clothing (69%), cars

(68%)food and beverages (62%), personal hygiene (62%), personal

health/over-the-counter medicines (61%) and hair care (60%). (Nielsen.com,

2013).

2.2 Social Media

Social Media Marketing refers to the process through which attention or traffic

is increased with the use of social media tools.

Teachersandsocialmedia.co.nz states, “Social media embraces web-based

and mobile-based technologies to facilitate interactive communication

between organisations, communities and individuals”.

The internet offers up a plethora of social media tools which can divided into

different categories: collaboration, networking, image-sharing, video-sharing,

micro-blogging and blogging.

2.2.1 Blogging

Figure 1: Nielsen Global Survey

As with anything, the Internet too has evolved over the years. In 1997,

John Barger came up with the term “weblogs” or simply “blogs”. These

blogs have been in existence since the 1990s and were either used as

personal online diaries or technology-oriented. An example of this is

Justin Hall who started blogging about his everyday life on his own

website in 1994 during the summer while he was interning at Wired

magazine.

In terms of corporate blogging however, it was Microsoft that led the way.

According to Korby Parnell, “In the beginning, back in 2002 and 2003, no

formal code of blogging conduct existed for Microsoft bloggers. There

were few, if any, other companies that allowed its employees to blog. To

top it all off, Microsoft has traditionally been a very tight-lipped company in

the area of public relations. To this day, all executives receive special PR

training upon joining the corporate ranks. It was the “wild west”. I don’t

think our legal department or public relations firm (WaggEd) had any idea

what we were doing on blogs.gotdotnet.com or of how big and important a

force we would soon become” (Wacka, 2005).

Corporate Blogging

Brafton defines corporate blogging as “the practice of creating content

that addresses industry updates, expert tips or best practices and

company news from the perspective of a brand”. Corporate blogs are

websites that not only gives consumers information, but it also enables

the company to interact with those consumers. In simpler terms, it

allows companies to be more "human" in terms of presence. And to

ensure the quality of the content, a company’s corporate blog is usually

managed by content writers who are industry experts or by the

company’s own executives.

Nowadays, a lot of the companies who have “corporate blogs” for their

consumers to read have realized that blogging is indeed a very

promising business tool. “Blogs are the place to engage in genuine

dialog about customer needs and expectations, company capabilities

and responses to problems, and the technological capacities and

decision-making that will shape society’s future” (Weinkrantz, 2008).

Companies that employ a well thought out blogging strategy encourage

the strongest community goodwill, which, in turn, promotes significant

marketing and sales gains. The blogger shares useful and engaging

content —the latest information, help, discussion topics and ideas. One

of the biggest advantages of corporate blogging is that they are

immediate and effective way to publish critical news and real-time

information that journalists and researchers might be looking for. A

survey by PRWeek and PR Newswire conducted in 2010 revealed that

over 30% of journalists use company blogs when conducting research

for a story, and nearly 30% use general blogs in their research efforts.

Corporate blogs can build trust and show customers a company

respects them, thereby strengthening business relationships. They can

also be used to promote and/or direct more traffic to the company’s

main website, announce the availability of newly released services and

products and also the end of phased out products. It may also serve as

a place in which the company may respond to or react to issues that it

is currently facing as it enables the company to be more informal and

better address the concerns in comparison to conventional press

releases. In addition, the information released on a company’s website

can be shaped into whichever form the corporation thinks best and the

posts are screened and reviewed before being released.

The analysts at eMarketer acknowledge that the use of “faster” forms of

social media communication and marketing (such as Twitter and

Facebook) have caused the growth of more time-intensive blogging

activities to slow down (Fig. 1).

However, corporations still publish blogs because they deliver a few

benefits that other social media tools don’t provide, such as greater

control, integration, more in-depth content publishing, and more varied

opportunities for creative communications and marketing.

Recently, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for

Marketing Research conducted its yearly study on the usage of social

media by fast-growing corporations. It “revisits the Center’s work on the

Inc. 500 social media usage for the sixth consecutive year, making it a

valuable and rare longitudinal study of corporate use of these new

technologies. The Inc. 500 come from a list of the fastest-growing

private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine” (Barnes,

Figure 2

2012).

The Inc. 500 refers to the fastest growing companies— in contrast with

the Fortune 500, which refers to biggest companies. In 2007, the

Center for Marketing Research studies showed that 8% of the Fortune

500 and 19% of the Inc. 500 used blogs and in the most recent study,

the blog usage increased massively with 23% for the Fortune 500 and

44% for the Inc. 500. “Thirty-seven percent of the 2011 Inc. 500 had a

corporate blog. In this new 2012 study, the use of blogging jumped to

44%, increasing by 7% after remaining stagnant for years. In addition,

sixty-three percent of CEO’s report contributing to content as this

mature tool enjoys a bit of a resurgence” (Barnes, 2012). The same

study also shows that the usage of YouTube and Facebook has been

dropping in favor of LinkedIn, Blogging and newer tools like Pinterest

and Foursquare.

A study conducted by JupiterResearch showed that 52 percent of their

respondents stated that corporate blogs played a role during times they

were about to purchase a certain product or service. It also stated that

31 percent found blogs useful for technology purchases.

According to a BuzzLogic-sponsored study, “The number of those who

read blogs at least once a month has grown 300% in the past four

years, and what they read strongly influences their purchase decisions,

playing a key role in ushering them to the point of actual purchase.”

(marketingvox.com, 2008)

The study conducted by JupiterResearch aimed to uncover the change

in behavior that happens after blog discovery and consumption, how

the blogs factor into the purchase decisions of consumers and the

nature of blog influence on buying behavior.

The other findings of the study are that 50 percent of blog readers find

blogs useful for information before making a purchase. Outside of

technology-related purchases, 31 percent of the readers said that blogs

are useful. In media entertainment, the results showed 15 percent, for

games/toys and/or sporting goods, the result was 14 percent, for travel,

12 percent, for automotive, 11 percent, and health, 10 percent.

Findings also showed that 56 percent of the readers said that blogs

with niche focus and topical expertise are key sources when it comes

to product purchase decisions.

According to BuzzLogic, Blogs factor in to critical stages of the

purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a

purchase decision, according to the study: Among respondents who

say they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past,

over half (52%) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they

decided to move forward with a purchase.

Blog readers' responses regarding blogs' influence as it relates to the

following steps of the purchase process:

Decide on a product or service: 21%

Refine choices: 19%

Get support and answers: 19%

Discover products and services: 17%

Assure: 14%

Inspire a purchase: 13%

Execute a purchase: 7%

Sony

The Sony Corporation is one of the most prominent companies in the

electronics industry. Ibuka Masaru and Morita Akio founded it in 1946 in

Tokyo, Japan. In the beginning, Sony was originally called Tokyo Tsushin

Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company). Ibuka and

Morita formed the company in the crippled post-war Japanese economy

and started off by repairing radios and fabricating voltmeters and trying to

build a future in producing new electronics. “Although the name of the

company was not officially changed to Sony Corporation until 1958, the

first Sony branded product was the TR-55 transistor radio which went on

sale in 1955. This was shortly followed by Sony’s world first "pocketable"

transistor radio” (sony.co.uk) Nowadays, their product lineup includes:

TV (Bravia)

DVD Player

Laptop (VAIO)

Home Theatre System

Camcorder

Camera (Cybershot)

Smartphone (Xperia)

Binoculars

Game consoles (PlayStation)

Headphones

Voice Recorder

Portable Radio

Batteries

Professional Display (Projector)

Digital Photo Frame

Energy Storage Media

Sony’s various competitors are the biggest names in the electronics

business: Apple, LG, HTC and Nintendo, just to name a few. As stated

on mobile-ent.biz, in the third quarter of 2012, Sony was finally able to

make it into the smartphone top five after six years. With a total market

share of 5.1%, Sony holds the third place. Samsung being first

(32.0%), Apple second (15.5%), HTC fourth (4.8%) and RIM fifth

(4.2%) — a glimpse of just how fierce the competition is.

Figure 3: Sony Blog

Engaged in a competitive market, Sony needed to establish a way to

interact with their consumers directly. With an audience invested in

social media, Sony had to meet their audience online and establish a

blogging strategy that would be effective. Sony worked with Nielsen

Buzz Metrics and Forrester Research and together decided a blog

would be their next step for building relationships. Sony realized early

on that all feedback is good feedback because it provides an

opportunity for Sony to be a part of the conversation (Lokitis, 2009).

Rick Clancy, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications,

wrote the first and authors majority of the posts on the Sony blog.

Clancy, with the aid of other moderators, respond to relevant

comments on each post. When the blog was launched, Clancy

acknowledged the inevitable reality that not everyone will appreciate

the blog and stated that he will make use of the blog to address

controversial issues and misunderstandings concerning the company,

and make Sony initiatives known to consumers.

2.3 Hypotheses

Ho: There is no significant relationship between Sony’s Corporate Blog and

the purchase decision of its customers.

Ha: There is a significant relationship between Sony’s Corporate Blog and the

purchase decision of its customers.

2.4 Summary

This chapter has provided an overview of social media marketing and

marketing, as well as information about Sony blog. This chapter also

presented the hypotheses formed from the review of related literature. There

was, however, limited research found concerning the impact of corporate

blogging on the buying decisions of consumers.

3 Methodology

3.1 Introduction

This research aims to analyze if there is a relationship between Sony’s use of

their corporate blog and the buying decisions of their customers. This chapter

provides an overview of the methodology used and the justification for its

usage. This chapter also reviews the research design, methods and ethical

considerations of the study.

3.2 Research Philosophy

A positivist approach has been chosen for this study. A researcher that goes

with the philosophy of positivism will adopt the philosophical stance of a

natural scientist. Positivism allows the researcher to work with an observable

social reality and that the end product of such research can be law-like

generalizations similar to those produced by the physical and natural

scientists. This philosophy’s emphasis will be on quantifiable observations

that lend themselves to statistical analysis. (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill,

2010). In the positivist paradigm, cause and effect relationships can be tested

and findings of research can be generalized from the study sample to the

larger population (Keele, 2010). This approach was the most appropriate as

the research used study sample to represent the entire market of Sony.

3.3 Research Approach

If the goal of the research study is to generalize findings from the sample to

the bigger target population, then a quantitative study is the method of choice

(Keele, 2010). This method is suitable for quantifying attitudes, behaviors and

opinions and in determining how a certain population feels toward a particular

issue. This approach was chosen because it considered a hard science and

because it parallels the research’s positivist philosophy.

3.3.1 Sampling

Sampling is the process that involves taking a part of the population,

making observations on this representative group, and then generalizing

the findings to the bigger population. A non-probability purposive sampling

technique was adopted; wherein the researcher selected a particular

group, which in his judgment is a representative sample. (Adanza, 2003)

A typical case purposive sampling was used to provide an illustrative

profile using a representative case. A purposive or judgmental sampling

enables the researcher to use his judgment to select cases that will best

enable him to answer his research questions and meet his objectives.

(Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2010). The sample in this study was

composed of 30 individuals whose education ranges from grade school to

college or higher and whose ages range from 13 to 50 years of age. The

sample was chosen based on their ownership of various electronic

gadgets.

The typical case purposive method is usually used when a researcher is

conducting a study with a very small sample, which is why this method

was used for this research.

3.4. Research Methods

The research method refers to the system used for collecting data for the

study, which may include surveys, interviews, publication research and other

research techniques, and could also include information from the past and

present.

3.4.1 Literature Review

A literature review was conducted and included in the previous chapter. It

specifies the ideas, facts and other related data that make up the basic

framework of the study. A literature review allows you to define and limit a

problem, place your study in perspective, avoid unintentional replication of

previous studies, select methods and measures, and relate findings to

previous knowledge and suggest areas for further research (McMillan,

Schumacher, 1984).

Relevant literature about corporate blogs was found online and was used

to serve as the study’s framework. Researching also gave way to the

discovery of the questionnaire from which this study’s questionnaire was

derived.

3.4.2 Questionnaire

A self-administered, internet-mediated questionnaire was distributed

through Google Docs and was used wherein the respondents were asked

to fill out the demographic portion consisting of their age and educational

attainment. They were then made to state the frequency of their use of the

internet and identify the Sony products that they have in possession. After

which the respondent answered the second part of the questionnaire—

which contains statements about the Sony blog— through the use of the

Likert Scale.

The initial version of the questionnaire was based on a survey conducted

by Penttala, S. and Saarela, H. It was pilot-tested on 20 individuals of the

same demographic as the target sample, and was then found to produce

insufficient data and contained several inessential questions. It was then

edited accordingly and administered on the sample of 30 respondents.

(Please see Appendix).

3.5 Summary

This chapter has provided a thorough overview of the methodology chosen for

the study by discussing the research philosophy, approach and methods used

to acquire the necessary data. The findings of the study will be discussed and

analyzed in the next chapter.

4 Analysis of Data

4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the presentation, analysis and discussion of the

findings acquired through the use of the aforementioned methodology.

4.2 Application of methodology

A quantitative research approach was adopted using questionnaires to collect

the necessary data from which, after statistical calculations, the conclusion

was drawn.

4.3 Analysis of respondents

4.3.1 Age

The study’s respondents consisted of 30 individuals whose ages range from

13 to 50 years old. This age range was chosen, as they are the ones who are

most tech-savvy. (Fig. 4)

R1 R3 R5 R7 R9R11

R13R15

R17R19

R21R23

R25R27

R290

10

20

30

40

50

60

Age

Age

Figure 4: Respondent Age

4.3.2 Educational Attainment

Basic education (grade school) 3 10%

High school 8 27%

Higher education (college) 17 57%

Other 2 7%

10%

27%

57%

7%

Educational attainment

Basic education (grade school)

High school

Higher education (college)

Other

Figure 5: Educational attainment

56 percent of the respondents have graduated from or are in college. 27

percent have finished percent are in or have finished high school— which is

considered their highest educational attainment. 10 percent

4.3.3 Ownership of Sony Product

Yes 30 100%

No 0 0%

Do you own Sony products?

Yes

Figure 6: Ownership of the product

Based on the data gathered Figure 6 showed that 100% of the respondents

owns a Sony Product.

4.3.4 Sony Products

TV 20 12%

DVD Player 11 7%

Laptop 6 4%

Home Theatre System 10 6%

Camcorder 8 5%

Camera 17 10%

Smartphone 6 4%

Binoculars 3 2%

PlayStation 18 11%

Headphones 13 8%

Voice Recorder 9 5%

Portable Radio 3 2%

Batteries 14 8%

Professional Display

(Projector)

10 6%

Digital Photo Frame 8 5%

Energy Storage Media 8 5%

Other 1 1%

TV

DVD Player

Laptop

Home Theatre System

Camcorder

Camera

Smartphone

Binoculars

PlayStation

Headphones

Voice Recorder

Portable Radio

Batteries

Professional Display (Projector)

Digital Phot Frame

Energy Storage Media

Other

0 5 10 15 20 25

Which of these Sony products do you own?

Figure 7: Sony Products

Figure 7 showed that 20 of the respondents own a TV product of Sony,

followed by video gaming console ( Play Station ) of Sony. 17 of the

respondents own a Sony Camera. The top three Sony products owned by the

respondents are TV ( 20 respondents), PlayStation ( 18 Respondents ) and

lastly Camera ( 17 respondents )

4.3.5 Consumer Awareness of Sony

Yes 30 100%

No 0 0%

Have you heard of Sony?

Yes

No

Figure 8: Consumer awareness of Sony

In Figure 6, based on the gathered data, it showed that 100% of the

respondents are aware of Sony.

4.3.7 Frequency of going online

Daily 14 47%

At least twice a week 6 20%

Weekly 0 0%

At least twice a month 5 17%

Monthly 5 17%

Other 0 0%

47%

20%

17%

17%

How often do you go online?

Daily

At least twice a week

Weekly

At least twice a month

Monthly

Other

Figure 9: Consumer Frequency on going online

Figure 7 showed that respondents often go online Daily (46%), second 20% of

them go online twice a Week, then 17% go online in a monthly basis or twice

a month.

4.3.8 Awareness of Sony Blogs

Yes 29 97%

No 1 3%

Are you aware of blogs?

Yes

No

Figure 10: Awareness of Sony Blogs

Figure 8 showed that 97% or 29 of the respondents are aware of blogs only

3% or only 1 respondent is not aware about the blogs.

4.3.9 Awareness of Existence of Sony Blog

Yes 26 87%

No 4 13%

Are you aware of the ex-istence of Sony blogs?

Yes

No

Figure 11: Awareness of Existence of Sony Blog

Figure 9 showed that majority or 87% of the total respondents are aware of

the existence of Sony’s blog, and only 4 respondents or 13% are not aware

that Sony has a blog.

4.3.10 Decision Making Using Blog Entries

Strongly Agree 17 81%

Agree 2 10%

Neutral 2 10%

Disagree 0 0%

Strongly Disagree 0 0%

I browse the web for blog entries about products before deciding to

purchase.

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

Figure 12: Decision making of consumers using blog entries

Figure 10 showed that 81% of the total respondents Strongly Agree that they

browse the web for blog entries about products before deciding to purchase.

10% agree and 10% is natural about using blog entries before deciding to

purchase products.

4.3.11 Inclination to purchase an item


Agree 10 42%

Neutral 9 38%

Disagree 2 8%


I am more inclined to purchase an item if its manu-facturer blogs about it.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

Figure 13- Agreement to the statement "I am more inclined to purchase

an item if its manufacturer blogs about it"

Figure 11 showed that most of the respondents (44%) agreed that they are

inclined to purchase a product if the manufacturer blogs about it, 28% strongly

agreed to the statement, 16% were neutral about it, and 12% disagreed.


Agree 10 42%

Neutral 9 38%

Disagree 2 8%


I am less inclined to purchase a product if its manu-facturer's blog does not contain information about it.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Strongly DisagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly Agree

Figure 14- Agreement to the statement "I am less inclined to purchase a

product if its manufacturer's blog does not contain information about it"

Figure 12 showed that 42% of the respondents agreed to the statement, 38%

were neutral, 13% strongly agreed, and 8% disagreed. Therefore, the

respondents are unlikely to buy products when the manufacturer’s blog do not

contain information about the product being purchased.

4.3.12 Comments


Agree 7 28%

Neutral 6 24%

Disagree 3 12%


In addition to the blog's main entry, I also read the comments of others on the comments section.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8


Figure 15- Agreement to the statement "In addition to the blog's main

entry, I also read the comments of others on the comments section"

Figure 13 showed that 28% of the respondents agreed to the statement that

“In addition to the blog's main entry, I also read the comments of others on the

comments section", 28% were neutral, 24% strongly agreed, and 20%

disagreed. Therefore, the respondents are reading the comments of others

about the product when reading blogs.

4.3.13 Forum communication


Agree 7 28%

Neutral 6 24%

Disagree 3 12%


I communicate with other customers on the Sony blog forum.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8


Figure 16- Agreement to the statement "I communicate with other

customers on the Sony blog forum"

Figure 14 showed that 28% of the respondents agreed to the above

statement, 24% were neutral, 20% strongly disagreed, 16% strongly agreed,

and 12% disagreed. Therefore, the respondents were divided on whether they

communicate with other customers on Sony blog forums.

4.3.14 Discovery of new things


Agree 6 25%

Neutral 2 8%

Disagree 7 29%


I discover new things on Sony's blog about the products I want to buy.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8


Figure 17- Agreement to the statement "I discover new things on Sony's

blog about the products I want to buy"

Figure 15 showed that 29% of the respondents disagreed to the above

statement, 25% strongly agreed, 25% agreed, 13% strongly disagreed, and

8% were neutral. Therefore, most of the respondents disagreed that they

discover new things about Sony’s products on blogs.

4.3.15 Satisfaction in blog content

Strongly Agree 1 4%

Agree 6 24%

Neutral 12 48%

Disagree 5 20%


I am satisfied with the amount of information in Sony's blogs.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14


Figure 18- Agreement to the statement "I am satisfied with the amount of

information in Sony's blogs"

Figure 16 showed that 48% of the respondents were neutral about the

statements above, 24% agreed, 20% disagreed, 4% strongly agreed, and 4%

strongly disagreed. Therefore, most of the respondents were neutral on

whether they are satisfied with the amount of information of Sony’s blogs.

4.3.16 Blog post information quality


Agree 13 52%

Neutral 5 20%

Disagree 1 4%


The quality of the information in the blog posts en-courages me to visit the Sony blog more often.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14


Figure 19- Agreement to the statement "The quality of the information in

the blog posts encourages me to visit the Sony blog more often"

Figure 17 showed that 52% of the respondents Agree about the statement

above, 25% Strongly Agree, 20% Neutral, 4% Disagree and 0% Strongly

Disagree. Therefore most of the respondents Agree that the quality of

information in Sony’s blog encourages the respondents to visit the blog more

often.

4.3.17 Consumer comment influence


Agree 7 29%

Neutral 10 42%

Disagree 0 0%


The comments of other consumers on Sony's blogs may change my opinion about a product.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12


Figure 20- Agreement to the statement "The comments of other

consumers on Sony's blogs may change my opinion about a product"

Figure 18 showed that 42% of the respondents are Neutral about the

statement above, and 29% agree, 25% Strongly Agree, 4% Strongly Disagree

and 0% Disagree. Therefore most of the respondents are neutral that

comments of other consumers on Sony’s blog can change their opinion about

a product.

4.3.18 Connection with reader


Agree 10 40%

Neutral 4 16%

Disagree 3 12%


Through Sony's blogging efforts, they are able to connect better with me.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12


Figure 21- Agreement to the statement "Through Sony's blogging

efforts, they are able to connect better with me"

Figure 19 showed that 42% of the respondents were neutral about the

statement above, 29% agreed, 25% strongly agreed, and 4% strongly

disagreed. Therefore, the respondents were neutral on the idea that the

Sony’s blogging efforts are able to connect better with them.

4.4 Correlation

With a 0.2831 correlation coefficient, the researcher concluded that there is a

relationship between the discovery of new things in Sony’s blog when

purchasing a product and the likeliness that the consumer will purchase

another Sony’s product considering that they are aware of Sony’s blog.

Therefore, when the consumers discover new information in blogs, they would

likely purchase the product.

4.4 Summary

This chapter has briefly presented the findings derived from the self-

administered, internet-meditated questionnaires as indicated in Chapter 3.

The following chapter will critically analyse the results in connection to the

previously stated research objectives.

5 Analysis of findings, implications, and conclusions

5.1 Introduction

This chapter analyses the finding of the study and will evaluate the adopted

methodology and specify a conclusion for the research question and

objective. The limitations of the study will also be discussed, as well as

recommendations for future researches to be done on the same topic.

5.2 Critical Analysis of Adopted Methodology

The research methodology stated in Chapter 3 was utilized for the study, but

there are limitations to the adopted methodology:

5.2.1 Self-administered Internet-mediated Questionnaire

The self-administered, internet-mediated, close-ended questionnaire

distributed through Google Docs and the respondents were made to give their

age, educational attainment and occupation. They were also made to identify

the Sony products they currently own and statements were given that would

measure how a corporate blog may affect their purchase decision. Although

the survey had a 100% response rate, more detailed information about the

respondent preferences cannot be gathered because of nature of the

questionnaire. Like, for instance, the researcher no longer included the

occupations of the respondents because some of them did not answer that

question.

Questionnaire distribution over the internet was chosen by the researcher due

to the speed. The downside of this, however, is that the questionnaire and its

record of results cannot be accessed if and when the internet access is down.

The same goes for the distribution, it is also affected in the absence of an

internet connection.

In addition, the researcher is not able to verify if the person meant to answer

the questionnaire is really the one who answered it. Also, the researcher will

have limited control over who gains access to the questionnaire.

5.2.2 Sample option

Due to the time constraint during the duration of the study, the researcher

adopted the purposive sampling method, wherein the researcher made use of

her best judgment to select the survey participants. This resulted in 57

percent of the participants having a college education and 100 percent of the

sample owning at least one Sony product. Therefore, the sample may be

biased and is difficult to generalize the wider population.

The sample chosen is based on just consumers of Sony. Thus, their insights

about different corporate blogs of other companies may be different. In

addition, the sample chosen did not include those who currently don’t own a

Sony product and how seeing Sony’s corporate blog would influence them to

buy, since the blog’s effect on them could be different from those who do own

a Sony product.

5.3 Analysis of Findings for Research Aims and Research Question and

Overall Conclusion About Research Project

The research aim and research question was to determine and draw

conclusions from results on whether there is a relationship between Sony’s

corporate blogging usages on their customer’s decision to purchase.

This research project was able to gain significant information about the

relationship shared between Sony Corporation’s use of corporate blogging

and the customer’s decision to purchase by identifying that the discovery of

new things on the blog would likely lead to the consumer purchasing the

product.

These were done through the analysis of the data acquired from the sample

population using the questionnaire. The correlation coefficient of 0.2831

showed that there is indeed a relationship between a consumer’s discovery of

new things on Sony’s corporate blog and their decision to purchase a product.

This result coincides with the research results of the study done by

JupiterResearch, wherein it was found that 52 percent of readers stated that

blogs are a factor in when they decide to purchase a product, and that 17

percent of the readers factor in the discovery of products and services,

specifically, influence their purchase decision.

The result also proves the alternative hypothesis that there is a significant

relationship between Sony’s Corporate Blog and the purchase decision of its

customers.

5.7 Limitations to the Study

The study was able effectively answer the research question posed in chapter

1. The study’s sample was selected through the use of purposive sampling,

which can therefore mean that the results may be biased because of the age

range of 13 to 50 years.

Another limitation is the sample size of 30 respondents, which may not be

applicable and sufficient to generalize the results to the wider population.

Thus, the findings may not be entirely accurate for everyone in other countries

as well.

The sample also mainly consisted of individuals who have attained a college

education, which would imply that they may be more cautious in purchasing

products and thus would be more likely to search for information before

making a purchase.

5.8 Opportunities for future research

The study could be enhanced and be made more in-depth by conducting a

survey on a larger and more age-diverse sample population, which would be

deemed enough to be used to generalize the wider population.

The study could also be improved by including the difference of the effects of

a corporate blog written by company employees and blogs written by

bloggers. It could delve into the amount of trust given to each and how it

affects not only the purchase decision of the consumer, but also how those

consumers help market those products further through word-of-mouth

marketing.

In addition, future researchers could also adopt other methodologies— such

as interviews— to derive better and more detailed results from the study. The

questionnaire could also be improved in terms of length and depth.

Researches done in the future could also include open-ended questions to

allow more freedom for the respondents to express themselves more.

A larger scale research could also be done by not focusing on just one

company, but by conducting a study on the relationship between corporate

blogs and the purchase decisions of the customers of the leading

manufacturers in a specific industry.

Sony's Use of Corporate Blogging As A Marketing Tool

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