Consumer Perception Process

The growing ubiquity of cell phones, especially the rise of smartphones, has made social networking just a finger tap away. Fully 40% of cell phone owners use a social networking site on their phone, and 28% do so on a typical day. Young people, blacks, Hispanics, the highly educated and those with a higher annual household income are more likely to use SNS on their phones than other groups.

With average online hours increasing every year, Canadians are spending more time on social networking sites (“Canada Online”,

In fact, according to Alex York in his article written for the website, Sprout Social, Social Media Demographics to Inform a Better Segmentation Strategy, “76% of adults use Facebook daily. 51% of adults use Instagram daily. 42% of adults use Twitter daily” (York). Everytime we log onto social media we are bombarded with many different view points on a variety of topics. Social media is constantly telling us how we should look, how we should eat, how our relationships should be, and much more.

New innovations to technology have provided people easier and more frequent access to social media sites and apps. According to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority in 2014 social media was most commonly accessed via laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Social media is the number one thing Canadians do online. (CIRA, 2014). Every social media site posts the number of users that it has on a worldwide scale. Given this is a Canadian proposed study here are some statistics of Canadian social media use. According to a survey done by Canadian’s internet.com Business in 2015 about 56% use Facebook, 16% use instagram, 30% Linkedin and 25% use Twitter. (McKinnon, 2015)

They include blogs, micro-blogs, photo or video sharing services, and other user experiences. Common features of social media sites include profile pages, contact or friend lists, the ability to create and share user-generated content between users, commenting capabilities and the ability to either privately or publicly message (Mergel, 2013). Popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest. Major platforms still experience growth, as evidenced by the continuing increase in users of Facebook and Twitter. Of all adults online in the United States, 72% are active on Facebook and 23% actively use Twitter (Duggan, 2015). This represents an increase usage from 2012 data indicating a 67% usage rate for Facebook and 16% for Twitter (Perrin, 2015). Further, a 2014 Pew Research report shows that 52% of all online adults use two or more social media sites, which is a significant jump from previous years (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden,

28% of teens and young adults, ages 12-21, showed interest in the profiles of marketers, retailers, and service providers on social networking

Throughout the dissection there were many opportunities and weaknesses to uncover. Strong consumer loyalty is an important strength that can help increase word-of-mouth of the brand. Many people look for information for new brands online through websites, reviews,

First, to obtain participants who meet the age, gender, and social network habits qualifications, a survey will be transmitted via a survey sampling service online. The survey will ask possible participants to input their year of birth, place of residence, list of social networks they are currently a member of, and how often they

According to 2016 Nielsen Social Media report: “Thirty-nine percent of heavy social users believe that finding out about products and services is an important reason for using a social network” (Casey, 2017). Besides, as per one survey carried out by the Deloitte firm, more than half of the respondents ranked “reviews from people within their social media circles” in their top three influencers (Taylor, 2016).

When any consumer likes a Facebook page, monitors a brand via Twitter or relates with a brand's existence on various social media networks like YouTube, Google+ or Twitter, a connection forms between the brand and the customer (Hennig-Thurau, et al., 2010). 19% of customers buy "often," and twenty nine percent of the customers buy “sometimes” due to their bonding with the brand. “There is a definite correlation between a customer liking a brand online and consumer's possibility to buy that brand," according to Social Vibe CMO John Capano. "People often follow brands on social media sites not because they find them adorable but because they want to acquire something," pointed Lieb. All Likes may not be equal (Libai, et al., 2010).

Brand Loyalty of consumers: Some consumers are very loyal to brands, but some don’t. The loyal customers will only buy the products from the company they stick to. Amazon loyal consumers will definitely prefer Amazon Kindle Fire rather than any other company. However, consumers can also accept substitute products, such as Apple iPad, HP Touchpad and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all have positive correlation relationships between the amount of page activity and the amount of user feedback (Zarella 2013). Therefore, it can reasonably be inferred that a social media page for the Calgary Cavalry FC should be quite active in order to produce an interactive online experience for fans. Facebook and Twitter have been consistently reported as having the highest degree of familiarity among any social media sites (Dickey and Lewis 2010), and thus these two websites should be predominantly considered for the purposes of Calgary Cavalry FC. However, Twitter has the added benefit of providing a more direct channel for users to communicate than Facebook does. The ability to re-tweet, reply and directly mention followers seems to have a greater impact than simply sharing on Facebook. Although Facebook is considered to be a less popular site used by teens, the awareness was 100%, with twitter following at 92% (416 were

2) Approximately 80% of adults in the United States use a social network on a daily basis.

Consumer behaviour is the study of how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. The emerging costumer trends play an important role in analysing the marketing opportunities. A consumer buying behaviour is influenced by cultural, social and personal factors. The consumer passes through five stages of the buying decision process: Problem Recognition, Information Search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behaviour. This model is important for anyone making marketing decision and customer pass through all stages in every purchase.

This work has drawn a clearer picture of brand communities and has shed light on the attraction of these communities, not only for consumers, but for marketers